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^ THREE SEASONS 



EUPiOPEAN VINEYARDS: 



TREATING OF 

VINE-CULTURE; VINE DISEASE AND ITS CURE; 

WINE -MAKING AND WINES, RED AND WHITE; 

WINE-DRINKING, AS AFFECTING 

HEALTH AND MORALS. 



By WILLIAM JfFLAGG. 






NEW YORK: 

HARPER & BROTHERS,. PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
1869. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of New York. 



^^"^'KW 



S^ 



^ 



9 



\ 



PREFACE. 



X THIN'K my work will be found in some degree 
interesting to the general reader, if he have cu- 
riosity, which Hume defines as " the love of learn- 
ing." 

I think, too, it may prove instructive to the general 
drinker as well, inasmuch as it relates to his daily 
beverages, and their effects on liis health and happi- 
ness. 

But my chief aim has been to convey information, 
both practical and theoretical, bearmg on the impor- 
tant matter of wine-growing in America. Liasmuch 
as such information has of necessity got interwoven 
and somewhat entangled throughout the whole tex- 
ture of the narrative, and might consequently be dif- 
ficult to refer to, I have added an index, which will 
help the reader to search out what he may need to 
find, under the several heads of "planting," "train- 
ing," " pruning," etc. 

To the same end, I would here indicate, in ad- 
vance, a few of the more important matters which 



iv Preface. 

will be found mentioned here and there, and not al- 
ways just where they ought. 
These are : 

1. Long pruning, which, as commonly practiced in 
America, I deem to have been an efficient cause for 
the decay of our vines. 

2. Drainage, the want of which, especially in the 
Ohio Valley, I feel quite certain has been equally 
injurious. 

3. The advantage of growing wine on plains rath- 
er than on hills, except where the quality obtained 
from hill-grown vines is such as will compensate for 
their larger cost and smaller yield. 

4. Training in low souche, and without stakes, as 
probably better adapted to our warm summers than 
the expensive methods imitated from countries where 
peaches can only be ripened on trees flattened and 
fastened to the south sides of high walls. 

5. Red wine, as preferable to white, for the future 
beverage of Americans. 

6. The sulphur-cm-e, as entirely efficacious against 
the disease of the vine in all its many forms, if only 
well applied. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
Bordeaux, the City of Wine. — Rosa Bonheiir's Horses. — Bewildering 
first Lessons in Vine-culture Page 9 

CHAPTER 11. 
A French Vineyard. — Crazy Vines, with no means of Support. — Slan- 
ders against French Wine. — Defenseless Fields 15 

CHAPTER III. 

Aquitaine. — Fanciful Theories. — How French People drink Wine, 
take Brandy, and use Water. — Sterne's Diligence and the simple 
Nuns. — Evening Scenes in the Kitchen. — Brandy Merchants. — 
Soil.— Cultivation. — Whisky is not Brandy 24 

CHAPTER IV. 
Medoc. — Vintage Feast. — Vintage Dance. — "A discretion." — 
Frenchmen kind to their Beasts. — Soil. — Plowing. — Training. — La 
Tour. — Making Wine. — Stemming Grapes. — Crushing with Feet. 
— Fermenting. — Filling up. — Dra^\ang off. — A Glass of the hest 
Red Wine in the World. — Pichon-Longueville. — Lafitte and its 
Pehhles. — Leoville. — Cos d'Estournel. — Pomys. — Six Classes of 
Wine and a Bourgeois Superieure 34 

CHAPTER V. 

The Sauterne District. — Soil. — Cultm'e. — Severe Leaf-pruning. — 
Three Vintages. — Head, Middle and Tail Wines. — Frenchmen eat 
beautifully 68 



vi Contents, 



CHAPTER VI. 

Languedoc. — Pursuing Knowledge by the slow Train. — Third-class 
Passengers. — Good Skeletons of the Peasantry. — Beziers. — Wine 
and Brandy making. — Low Souche Training Page 71 

CHAPTER VII. 
Burgundy and the Cote d'or. — Eirst taste and last. — Disorderly 
Vines. — Layering. — Wages. — Wine-making. — Plaster of Paris. — 
Opposing Systems as to Stemming Grapes. — Crushing Avith Feet — 
and worse. — Good Men and good Wine. — Quantity and Quality. 
— Long Pruning ruinous. — Soils of the Cote d'or. — Mode of Plant- 
ing. — Layering. — Vine-disease. — Red Wine. — What it has done 
for the French and what it will do for us 78 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Epernay. — Catacombs of Bottles. — Sparkling Wine. — How com- 
pounded, doctored and dosed. — Americans should learn for them- 
selves how to make it lOG 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Great Exhibition. — Foreign Drinkers and American Drinks. — 
Falsification of Wines. — False Wines and true, and the Drunkai-d's 
Thirst. — Distribution of Prizes. — Pasteur and his discoveiy. — Eu- 
ge'nie 118 

CHAPTER X. 

Rheims. — Chalk, Mutton, and Champagne. — Tliick-set Vines. — St. 
Thierry. — Charlemagne and the Nuns. — A serene Home and its 
resident Proprietor. — Layeiing again. — Three Cures for the Vine- 
disease. — Old Vines and new. — High Vines and low. — Soil. — Cul- 
tivation 148 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Rhine. — The Sour Wine Country. — The Rhinegau. — Johaunis- 
berg. — Soil. — Cultivation. — Wine-making. — More Monks. — A 
Tasting Party.— The Bride of the Cellar 162 



Contents. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Swiss Vineyards. — Sandstone, Basalt, and Manure, and inferior 
Wines Page 180 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Durkheim. — Sweet Pills. — Good Vine-culture. — Vices of modern 
Cooking 183 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Vienna, Beer, and Tokay. — A metaphysical Drink. — How Sweet To- 
kay is made. — Frosty Mornings and Days of Sunshine. — Barbari- 
ans love Sugar 189 

CHAPTER XV. 
Italy. — Peculiarities of Italian Vine-training. — Sorrento. — Capri. — 
Ischia. — Rome. — Tuscany. — The Riviera Road. — Italian Energy 
and Industry 196 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The great Wine Country of the South of France. — Formation and 
Soil. — Temperature. — Rains. — Winds. — The O'idium. — Ruin im- 
pending. — The Sidphur-cure. — H. Mares's Manual 203 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Montpellier and Mares. — Cette. — Muscat of Frontignan. — Visit to a 
Vineyard in low Souche. — Visit to another of 250 Acres. — Frost. — 
The Foster-brothei*. — American Vines in Languedoc— Wine- 
making 284 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Would low Souche Vines do well in America ? — Our Climate warm 
enough. — Present Modes too expensive. — A glut of Wine to be 
feared and hoped for 301 



viii Contents. 

CHAPTEE XIX. 
How they plant Vines in Souche. — Good Reasons for five-feet Spac- 
ing. — Cuttings. — Pruning and Training. — Bringing old Souches 
into shape Page 309 

CHAPTER XX. 
How to grow Wine cheaply. — Wliat to do ■with it. — Prohable Ef- 
fects 319 



THREE SEASONS 

IN 

European Vineyards. 

CHAPTEE L 

BOBDEAUX, 

T" WHITE this book because I have something to 
-^ say, and not because I have to say something. 
It is of small importance how I tell what I know, 
but I know what I have to tell is important. Prob- 
ably no other American has made near so thorough 
a pilgrimage among tlie vineyards of Europe as 1 
have, and certainly not among those of France. 
When I began my explorations I had barely enough 
knowledge of wine-growing to know what it was I 
needed to learn, which was better, perhaps, than to 
know so mucli as to feel above the need of learning 



10 European Vineyards. 

any more. It was only gradually and slowly, as I 
continued my investigations, that I became aware 
how much was to be gleaned from the experience 
of other and older countries to enlighten the inex- 
perience of our own, and of the importance of the 
observations I was making, or, rather, the things I 
observed. 

On the 20th of September, 1866, 1 arrived in beau- 
tiful and rich Bordeaux, the capital of wine — the 
centre, not of one great wine district merely, but of 
many, and all of them of ancient and universal ce- 
lebrity. Adjoining it on the northwest is Medoc, 
where stand famous Chateaux Margaux, La Tour, 
and Lafitte. Farther away, to the north, is the de- 
partment of Charente, where in every hamlet true 
cognac is distilled ; southwardly, and up the River 
Garonne, lies that strip of sandy shore, narrow in 
measure but wide in reputation, where Yquem reigns 
supreme ' among gardens, where grow fii'st, second, 
and third class Sauterne, the white rose of the Bor- 
delais, as Medoc is the red ; while all around, inter- 
mediately and beyond, are the comparatively inferior 
soils which yield the staple commodity of the Bor- 
deaux market, the claret of commerce. 

From the city out to the sea flows the wide and 
deep Gironde, the ebb tide of whose waters is a flood 



Bordeaux. 11 

tide of wines, going out in ships of every nation to 
every port of the globe. 

In the skill of the Bordeaux merchants for com- 
bining and improving crude wines I can readily be- 
lieve, for what is it but chemistry and cookery — sci- 
ence and taste — and who are such chemists, or who 
such cooks, as Frenchmen ? This skill has made the 
exports of their cellars the most portable, merchant- 
able, and generally consumed of all the wines of 
commerce. For this reason they are able to market 
not only the product of the surrounding country, but 
also large supplies drawn from the south of France, 
taking, on an average, half the large crop of L'He- 
rault, which they buy at from ten to twenty -five 
cents a gallon, and sell again at so great a profit, 
at least when Americans are the buyers, that lately 
large quantities were seized in the New York Cus- 
tom-house upon the very natural presumption that 
what was retailed for six dollars a dozen on one 
side of the Atlantic must have cost over six fi'ancs 
on the other. 

I ought to have made a few visits to the commer- 
cial cellars and store-houses where this great com- 
merce is carried on, but did not do so. I was tempt- 
ed away into the open country by the beautiful and 
soft weather which had just succeeded to the almost 



12 European Vineyards. 

incessant rains of that summer of 1866, so disastrous 
to the cultivator. Contenting myself, therefore, with 
a pilgrimage to the statue of Montesquieu in the 
public garden, and a short stroll on the docks, I got 
into an omnibus running to Creon, in tlie neighbor- 
hood of which was the chateau of a gentleman 
whom, though ' I had only met him once, and six 
years before, I was resolved so far to impose upon as 
to ask leave to look at his vines. 

" Why there's one of Rosa Bonheur's horses !" I 
exclaimed, as a dray went by the omnibus, drawn by 
one of the larger specimens of that admirable race 
of animals which the well-known engraving of the 
horse-market has made familiar to us all, on paper. 
''Is it possible those casks are full?" "Yes, sir," 
replied my neighbor on the opposite seat ; " and there 
are fifteen of them, each holding 228 litres, and with 
the wood weighing good 250 kilos. But they can 
well do that, those Normandy fellows — beasts of 
nerve they are." 

And inquiries repeatedly made while I remained 
in France satisfied me that it was indeed possible for 
the heavy draft horses of Normandy to draw on one 
of the enormous drays that are made for them be- 
tween thi*ee and four tons. If we could replace our 
six millions of nags, of one sort and another, with 



Bordeaux. 13 

one third their number of a breed like this, the two 
millions would do the work of the six, at a saving in 
feeding and attendance equal to double the interest 
of om' national blessing. Thus computing, I said to 
myself that if I had left behind me the land of steam, 
I had found the land of horses. 

Two farmers, whom I afterward met wliile travel- 
ing in Normandy, told me the Perche comitry was 
really the home of the breed called Norman, and 
that it was their custom to buy from there six- 
months' colts, wliich they raised and broke, working 
them from two years' old, and selling them when 
they got to be five or six years old ; the prices ob- 
tained for full-grown and well-broken animals rang- 
ing from $200 to $250. I am glad to learn they 
are at length bringing them to America, where a late 
importation sold for prices which averaged $2500. 

Falling into conversation with my fellow-travelers, 

I was gratified to learn that M. P , whom I was 

going to see, was esteemed a skillful and successful 
cultivator, with few equals in the neighborhood. I 
talked a good deal with my companions in the omni- 
bus during our two hours' drive. They were mostly 
working vine-dressers, and being, as Frenchmen al- 
ways are, polite and communicative, I learned from 
them a good deal I had never heard before concern- 



14 European Vineyards. 

ing the object of my inquiries, if one can be said to 
have learned any thing when the lesson he takes is a 
confused jumble of details which overloads his mem- 
ory and befogs his intellect. 

From my peasant acquaintances collectively I did, 
however, obtain the following clear ideas : 

1st. That each variety of vine needed a different 
culture for each different soil, and again for each 
different chmate, 

2d. That there was an old school and a new school, 
with opposite theories on every branch of vine cul- 
ture, planting, manuring, training, prmiing, cultiva- 
ting, and gathering. 

3d. That every cultivator had his own whims and 
prejudices to qualify his apphcation of the newer the- 
ories. 

4th. That there were a good many varieties of 
French vines, and a good many different soils and 
situations in France. 

From all which I inferred : 

First, that there was much to learn. 

Secondly, that I should never learn it. 

But a few clear lights will illuminate a good many 
facts, so that with patience and labor the rubbish can 
be knovm and rejected, and the useful brought into 
form and order. 



Saint Genes. 15 



CHAPTEK IL 

SAINT GENES. 

T^HAT night I lodged in the only inn at Creon, a 
-*- humble little affair where the peasantry resort- 
ed to enjoy "their hard-won leisure and drink their 
wine, but where the food and bedding were good 
enough for any body. The next morning I was driv- 
en over to the chateau of St. Genes, whose proprietor 
recognized and welcomed me with the politeness of 
a Frenchman and the hospitality of an American. 

"With small loss of time, and vdthout needing to 

go far, we began the tour of M. P 's well-kept 

and extensive fields. Having long attended to his 
own affairs, he was well informed on every practical 
detail ; and having once been a lawyer, he could ex- 
plain them fluently. The weather was fine, the coun- 
try was beautiful, and I was happy to be walking in 
a French vineyard that day. 

The soil of the first piece we entered was a sandy 
loam ; in other places I found it to be gravelly loam, 



16 European Vineyards. 

but all was mixed with more or less of clay. The 
better wines grew on the gravel. The piece in ques- 
tion was furnished with wire trellis. The vines were 
set two feet apart in the rows, and the space between 
the rows was four feet wide. The posts were round 
and straight locust sapHngs grown for the purpose, 
and were placed twenty feet apart. Through holes 
in tkem the wires were strung, and an ingenious con- 
trivance tightened them. They were further sup- 
ported by intermediate stakes. There were three 
lines, each being eighteen inches from the other, and 
the lowest at the same distance from the ground. 

The fruit-bearing cane was trained along the low- 
er wire, so that the bunches seemed to belong as 
much to the one as the other. The canes thus train- 
ed, however, are not allowed to grow into arms, but 
are renewed every one, two, or three years. The 
fruit of the second year, and which was produced 
from buds on the fehoots grown during the first year, 
seemed to hang so close to the horizontal cane and 
wire that I think those shoots must have been cut 
back to one eye only, but on this point my recollec- 
tion is not quite distinct. The shoots, as they grew, 
were attached to the two upper wires. Although 
the season had been bad, the grapes were healthy, 
and with a fortnight or so of the fine weather just set 



Saint Genes. 17 

in, promised to do tolerably well. M. P 's wire 

trellis was indeed a pretty sight. That gentleman 
thinks the wire saves one half the cost of manipulat- 
ing the vines; namely, of training, pruning, attach- 
ing, rubbing off, pinching back, unleafing, amd gath- 
ering. 

" What is that ?" I exclaimed, with no little aston- 
ishment, as, turning away from the trellis where 
vines were so tenderly upheld, we entered on a field 
where there was never a bit of trellis nor stake at all, 
nor peg to tie to, nor tree to hang upon, but where 
each individual plant, alone and self-sustaining, scorn- 
ing all support — its arms embracing nothing, its ten- 
drils twining nothing — stood on its own bottom, and 
held up its own top, like a strong-minded woman 
planted on her rights ! 

It was a field of the variety known as '■^lafolle 
hlanchS'' (the crazy vine), vulgarly called '''■ enragatt^'' 
growing " en souche hasse^^ which may be translated 
by stmnp or stool, souche meaning literally " stocks 

I paused long in presence of this abrupt commen- 
tary on all om- learned talk about different kinds of 
trelHs and modes of training to them, and did not 
move on till I had learned something about training 
" en souche^'' and " lafolle hlancheP 

I learned it was an uncommonly hardy plant, nev- 



18 EUKOPEAN YiNE YARDS. 

er injured by frost, nor, to M. P 's knowledge, 

by any disease; that it was a regular and reliable 
bearer, and, on a good sandy loam, such as I then 
saw, could be counted on for over a thousand gallons 
to the acre, and sometimes gave as much as twenty- 
five Imndred. 

As a workman drew apart the branches of one of 
the sonches, a profusion of full-sized white grapes 
was revealed, all hanging close about the head, and 
easily sustained by the rugged old stock, which was 
about ten inches high and five inches thick. " It is 
a perfect fountain of wine," said the man. 

The quaUty of the wine from the folle blanche 
depends, of course, much npon the soil. In Medoc 
they habitually grow it with the malbec, a fine vari- 
ety, but whose must is deficient in acid; and the 
combination results in a wine of the very first grade, 
such as sometimes sells from the cellar at eight dol- 
lars a gallon. Although commonly grown for quan- 
tity, and on strong soils, it nevertheless makes the 
most of its advantages, and on gravelly loam will 
give a very good merchantable white wine. The 
Bordeaux merchants compound it with a strongly- 
colored coarse wine from the back country, costing 
twenty-five and thirty cents a gallon, to make a cheap 
claret, which is sold, labeled with the names of all 



Saint Genes. 19 

the great houses of Medoc, to Americans. The price 
of wine fi'om the f olle blanche is forty cents and up- 
ward, though M. P sells his for fifty and sixty 

cents and upward. In the department of the Cha- 
rente this plant is the favorite, and cliiefly from its 
strong juice the Cognac brandy is made. 

Now white wine mixed with red does not make a 
true red wine, and those of us who drink such com- 
pounds as the above drink two distinct beverages mix- 
ed together. But both are pure, and, if not adultera- 
ted with alcohol, wholesome. Delavan and Dow tell 
us that all om* imported wines are not wines at all, but 
mere chemical illusions, as if France, with a yearly 
product of a thousand million imperial gallons, need- 
ed to draw uf)on her cisterns, wells, and drug-shops 
for the small quantity she exports. In. some parts of 
the south they sell pure wine at wholesale for a cent 
the bottle — not very drinkable stuff, to be sure, but a 
good deal better than dye-stuff, one would think, and 
cheaper too. 

M. P , seeing how much his wine-fountains in- 
terested me, kindly offered to send me some cuttings 
fi'om them. Knowing how completely had failed all 
attempts to acchmate Em'opean varieties in America, 
I did not then accept the offer ; but a few months 
later, and after witnessing: in the south of France the 



20 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

wonders of souclie training, I reconsidered and ac- 
cepted. He sent them. Tliey arrived safe, a thou- 
sand of them, whereof three hundred took good root, 
and are now growing finely on the banks of the Ohio. 

Now when I shall come to relate my observations 
in the south of France, my reflections thereon, and 
plans and hopes thence resulting, I think they will 
be found new, interesting, and important to my fel- 
low vine-dressers. I think they will see in souche 
training the true way to get wine cheaply and easily, 
so that none shall need to drink water, except, as For- 
tescue, the chancellor of Henry the Sixth, wrote of 
the common people of England in the days when she 
was " merrie," "occasionally, or by way of penance." 
And in the day when every farmer can, from half an 
acre of land, easily and cheaply planted and tilled, 
even by the unskillful, harvest what will fill his ten 
or twelve barrels with honest juice for the habitual 
daily drink of himself and family — om' two heavy 
afflictions and sins, excessive water-drinking and ex- 
cessive whisky-drinking, will vanish fi^om the land, 
and a beneficent change in our national tempera- 
ment begin to be wrought. 

The vines about Creon are not generally of so low 
a class as the f olle blanche, neither do they give great 
v\'ines, such as are made in Medoc or the Sauterne 



SaintGenes. • 21 

district, but are of tliose rather which yield the good, 
staple " Bordeaux," dearly loved of all Frenchmen, 
and for which they must pay no very moderate price 
either, since much of it commands, at wholesale, a 
dollar a gallon. It can be had in America of honor- 
able wine-merchants dealing with others like them- 
selves on the opposite side of the water, or, better 
still, who have direct relations with honorable propri- 
etors there who reside on their estates. 

The fields we next inspected were in good cultiva- 
tion, but the vines were trained to stakes only, re- 
minding me of those in the vineyards I had left be- 
hind, except that they stood nearer together and were 
rather smaller. They seemed to have had no very 
close summer prmiing, but little tying up, and no 
leaf -pruning, though the time for it had passed. The 
ground had been only twice plowed, I think. 

The labor is to a great extent done by contract, 
and of necessity it is carefully classified and speci- 
fied. Where the superintendence is good, the system 
works admirably. It is desirable we should intro- 
duce it as soon as the vine-culture shall be well 
enough extended, organized, and understood, but for 
the present I should fear to try it. I remember that 
in Brown County, Ohio, they once had, and may have 
still, a simple plan of letting the whole labor, by con- 



22 EuropeanYineyaeds. 

tract, at forty or fifty dollars per acre for the year, 
which was at the same time costing me as much as 
seventy-five dollars. Wages in the neighborhood of 
St. Genes were forty cents a day in summer and 
thirty in winter. Women got but half as much. 

As paper money has of late years confused our 
ideas of values, I will in this connection give some 
of the retail market prices customary about Bor- 
deaux, so that the value of thirty and forty cents may 
be somewhat estimated. 

Beef and mutton, good cuts 20 cents. 

Pork U " 

Eggs, per dozen 12 " 

Milk, per quart 3 " 

Strong shoes, good for a year's wear, $1 60 

Wooden shoes 26 " 

The same with leather uppers 60 " 

Our promenade extended far beyond the domains 
of St. Genes, and over those of several neighboring 
proprietors. Entirely new to me and to my feet was 
this going from field to field, and farm to farm, as 
one may do in nearly every civilized country except 
Britain and America, without ever meeting fences to 
be climbed, walls to be scaled, bars to let down, or 
gates to open. The contrast between the orderly, 
neighborly, and trustful aspect of the scene I was 
studying, and the fortified look of our own cultivated 



Saint Genes. 23 

country, where at every few rods you encounter 
picket, or palisade, or barricade of stone, or double 
stake and ridered nine-rail worm fences, bristling- 
like so many abattis, all of them " pig tight, bull 
strong, and stallion high," was like the contrast be- 
tween peace and war. 

Returning rather late to the chateau, we could give 
only a few moments to the w^ine-house. I was pleased 
to notice a hand-mill for crushing the grapes — a good 
deal nicer way than w^hat I saw a few days later 
among people less advanced than my host of St. 
Genes. lie told me, upon my inquiry, that the crop 
of the estate the year before — an extraordinary good 
one — was 500 barriques, or 30,000 gallons. 

At dinner I met the ladies of the family, which, 
had I done before my walk, it would have been 

shorter, perhaps. M. P resides in Bordeaux, 

and the family had only come out to Saint Genes to 
remain through vintage. He, however, having a busi- 
ness-like way of looking after his interests, is fre- 
quently there. 

Next day my good friends would not allow me to 
go back the way I came, but drove me over to a rail- 
way station some ten miles distant, the drive afford- 
ing a sight of extensive vine-fields, and some most 
charming scenery as well. 



24 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 



CHAPTEE III. 

COGNAC. 

^T^HE speed of common railway trains in France 
-^ never takes away yonr breath, nor whirls things 
out of sight before you see them. So nothing hin- 
dered my observing all we passed, on both sides of 
the track, leisurely enough to get an idea of the 
modes of training, and so forth, in the northern por- 
tions of Aquitaine — the ancient and original — the 
Aquitaine of Froissart's Chronicles. Many a \T.ne- 
yard I saw whose fresh young shoots and fohage 
covered and hid short, thick, rugged old stocks be- 
low, gnarled and wrinkled with a hundred years of 
fruit-bearing existence. But a century is a short 
time in the history of the vine in this antique coun- 
try. The Csesars drank the juice of its soil and were 
glad. The savage Yisigoths, in their turn, we may 
be sure, got beastly drunk on it. The pious Saracens 
who drove out the Visigoths broke the law of the 
Prophet in its honor. And from the time of William 



Cognac. 25 

the Conqueror down to the Methuen treaty, which 
exduded it in favor of Spanish adulterations, it nour- 
ished and strengthened the best blood of England, a 
good deal of which same blood was again and again 
poured out on this same soil, in battles fought to hold 
and extend possessions which yielded to tlie thii-sty 
islanders what Katm*e had denied them in their prop- 
er home — good wine and red. 

A fanciful theorizer has said that all good English 
comedies were wiitten before tlie time of the Me- 
thuen treaty, which was about a hundred and fifty 
years ago, arguing thence that only pm-e wine can 
inspire pm'e wit. It is very true that both England 
and America mostly import their good plays from 
France, in shape of translations or adaptations ; but 
I can hardly believe it was ever possible to import • 
them in the form of casks of Bordeaux or bottles of 
Burgundy; and tlnnk, with Su* Emerson Tennent, 
that British palates have always craved what was 
mixed, muddled, and strong, which, he says, is be- 
c;ause of fogs. . If so, then so much the worse for the 
British, I say, and all the more shame for us, who, 
with no fogs to excuse it, have, from mere force of 
example, learned to love fog medicine — port, sherry, 
Madeira, whisky, and rum — which, in om- dry climate, 
rend us as they never do a Briton in his home — but 

B 



26 European YiNEYAKDS. 

this reminds me we are on the way to the land of 
brandy. 

A clattering of plates and glasses called my atten- 
tion to the party occupying the same compartment 
with me, consisting of a gentleman and wife, two 
other ladies, and two children, who were beginning 
their midday breakfast. The bottles, of the size the 
Bordeaux people use when they drink, but not when 
they sell, held as much as one of our quarts. That 
family emptied one bottle, they emptied two, they 
emptied three. To tell the truth, they ate as beauti- 
fully as they drank, managing to divide the contents 
of their enormous lunch -basket into nine or ten 
courses, and, by taking them in detail, to conquer 
them all. At the end of the repast a bottle of bran- 
dy was produced, and a paper of sugar in lumps. A 
very little of the brandy was poured into a glass, and 
each one taking a lump of sugar, soaked it in the 
brandy and ate it. Still another bottle was un- 
corked, and from it a tumbler was filled with water 
— the first appearance of that liquid on the scene. 
In the tmnbler they all washed their fingers and 
lips. 

That is the way French people drink wine, and 
that the way they drink brandy, and that the use 
they make of water. . , 



Cognac. 27 

Leaving the cars at Angouleme, I continued my 
journey in a diligence. The fancy pleased me of 
travehng in the old slow coach of slow old times, as 
Sterne did when he made his "sentimental journey 
through France and Italy." But sentiment was not 
curled hair, and could neither cushion the hard seats 
nor deaden the rattling din of the rackety concern, 
and I was glad when they set me down at a snug ho- 
tel in the little city of Cognac. 

As we entered the brandy district, the folic blanche 
appeared and soon covered the whole face of the coun- 
try. The soil was mostly stony, poor and thin ; of no 
value at all, I should think, except for grapes, and 
even a grape\dne, one would tliink, must be crazy to 
hve there. I could nowhere see that stakes were 
needed for supports, though the souches were eight- 
een inches high. Young plantations, I have been 
told, need small stakes during the first two or three 
years, but I noticed none. 

It rained continuously. !N"o vintaging could be 
seen, and attention soon tired of the look-out at the 
window of the coupe, so I looked in. Two nuns 
were with me — not handsome, of course, for in 
France beauty is too precious a commodity to shut 
up in convents — but very jolly and talkative, and 
better company than the holy women I had met in 



28 European Vineyards. 

America ; and, thongli tlieir ideas were limited 
enough, still a seeker after wisdom could learn a 
good deal from them. Wlien I told them the great 
majority of my countrywomen esteemed it a sin to 
take a drop of wine, they were astonished, and one 
naively asked, " Must they drink only beer, then ?" 
adding, " I don't like beer." But when told beer too 
was forbidden, they fell to pitying the poor Protest- 
ants, whom they had not thought were so austere. 
" To be sure," they said, " one must do penance ; it 
is for the safety of the soul ; but the good God does 
not require liis creatm'es to injure then' health by 
their abstinences." 

Abstinences ! Poor girls ! If a marquis with 
200,000 fi'ancs of income, young, handsome, and 
agreeable, were to offer himself to either of them, 
she would abstain from liim teetotally, with might 
and main, as if on j)eril of perdition, yet she could 
put her quart of wine daily under her corsets, and 
thank God for it in her prayers ; while many a pret- 
ty Puritan on our side, taught from childhood to be- 
lieve it " hquid poison" to body and " liquid damna- 
tion to soul," thinks it a sin and a crime to moisten 
her red lips with one drop of pm-est Margaux, on 
whose conscience a hundred warm kisses accepted 
by those same lips would rest as lightly as a thistle- 
down on Plymouth Rock. 



Cognac. 29 

Arrived at the hotel, I found a seat by the kitchen 
fire more agreeable than imprisonment in a bed- 
room. The kitchen was large, and was, in fact, the 
chief rendezvous for all the household, as well as 
their guests. In my time I have stopped at many an 
American country tavern, and sat in their bar-rooms 
while my fellow-citizens came and went and drank 
whisky. The scene I witnessed at Cognac was quite 
different. About a table in the middle of the room 
were seated eight or ten. peasants and town-folks, re- 
freshing themselves with bread and cheese, and 
strong draughts of weak wine, while amusing them- 
selves with cards, conversation, pipes, and snuff. In 
the adjoining room was a bilhard-table, where a larger 
party were engaged in playing or looking on. These, 
too, had their potations. During the two hours I re- 
mained below I noticed closely the conduct of all 
the company, and, though there was plenty of gayety 
and seemingly real enjoyment, there was nothing in 
the least like drunkenness, ill temper, or ill manners. 
Lager beer, so called, is an immense improvement on 
rum and whisky — thanks to the good Germans who 
have made us to know it — but simple wine certainly 
has moral qualities far superior to beer." A merry 
but decent drink, exhilarating but not infuriating, it 
carries neither knife, revolver, nor slung-shot in its 



30 E u K o p E A N Vineyards. 

pockets. To the poor work-people of France it is 
an inestimable blessing, as it will be to ours when it 
is vouchsafed to them. 

" You don't bake your poultry, then ?'' I said to the 
landlady, as I saw her fix on a spit the fowl I had 
called for, and then set it to turning before the fire 
by means of a clumsy clock-work, " No, no ; that's 
tlie way they will spoil your pullet in the great ho- 
tels at Bordeaux, and then make you pay three prices 
for it. For my part, I say, '.Vive la broche /' " (long 
live the spit !) The spit did look long-lived, rather ; 
it measured good seven feet. The fowl was roasted 
well enough, and ate well enough ; but it was with- 
out dressing, was soppy from frequent basting with 
only water, to keep it from burning in the blaze of 
fagot-wood, and came before me with its head and 
claws on. Nobody in France roasts any better than 
tliis. 

In the morning it still rained hard, and I did not 
care to make au}'^ excursion into the surrounding 
country, where there would be no distilling to see, 
because it was vintage-time, and no Adntage, because 
it was rahiing. A few years before I had received 
a visit from young Mr. Otard, of Cognac, of the firm 
of Otard, Dupuy, & Co., so thought I would look 
liiiu u}> ; but, on calling at tlic place of business of 



CoGNAO. 31 

tlic firm, which I could easily sec was an immense 
concern, I was told the gentleman in (j^uestion was 
absent from town. Unfortunately, no otlicr mem- 
ber of the house was in Cognac, and the highest au- 
thority to be found on the premises had no authority 
to admit a stranger. 

All the world have heard of the house 1 have men- 
tioned. Its name is often used in America to christen 
whisky. O., D., & Co. are not distillers, however, but, 
like the other large houses of Cognac and Jarnac, are 
merely merchants who buy up the liquor distilled by 
the co.untry proprictoj's, and gather it into their mag- 
azines, where they treat it — or maltreat it — in some 
dark mysterious fashion they fear to let strangers 
witness, and, when it is old enougli, sell it under their 
own brands. 

Cognac brandy is not cheap, even in its own city, 
where such as is old enougli for drinking costs, from 
first hands, two dollars a gallon. I>randy is made in 
many other parts of France for about half that price. 
It is a pity we in America must pay so excessively as 
we do for French brandy, and even then be torment- 
ed with doubts of the genuineness of the medicine 
we take. 

Good physicians say the aromatic quality of bran- 
dy gives it medicinal virtues different from those of 



32 EuEOPEAN Vineyards. 

other kinds of spirits, and, moreover, that pure liquors 
are better medicines than adulterations. Whether 
any one can explain why this is so or not, I am sure 
no intelligent person would have equal faith in a 
mixtm'e of common druggists' alcohol and water, as a 
remedy for typhoid fever, as in pure Cognac. There 
must, in the nature of things, be a connection between 
aroma, savor, taste, and digestibility — between at- 
tractiveness and usefulness. They brought me but 
lately a saddle of venison fi*om a deer that had been 
chased into the river and there killed. It had utter- 
ly lost all taste, and could not be eaten, or, had it 
been eaten, it would have failed to afford the least 
nourishment, if Liebig is right. The nervous power 
had been hunted out of the poor beast, and with it 
had been expelled from the flesh all that could be at- 
tractive or useful to man. Against whisky, as whis- 
ky, I have no objection ; but as brandy, whisky is a 
failure. To convert it into Cognac, they first rob it 
of its com ethers, and then replace them with con- 
coctions which may cheat the palate, perhaps, but 
never the stomach. The connection between the 
ethereal and the substantial parts of all drinks is like 
that between spirit and matter — once dissolved, it 
can never be restored. 

To make a gallon of Cognac brandy, seven and a 



Cognac. 33 

half gallons of wine must be distilled. No sooner 
lias fermentation subsided than distillation begins, 
and this is often as early as the fii'st of September. 
Three qualities are made in the Charente: great 
champagne, little champagne, and bois. The term 
champagne comes from the resemblance of the soil 
where the wine is grown to that of the department 
of the Marne, in the province of Champagne, both 
being chalky limestone. The best quahty is from 
the poorest soil, of course. The average yield of 
wine to the acre is 400 gallons. The cost of cultiva- 
tion is about twenty dollars, gathering and pressing 
included. Plowing is done four times a year, twice 
to uncover, and twice to cover the feet of the souches. 
A regular and certain return of five per cent, on his 
capital contents the proprietor in the Charente, and 
even this moderate rate could not be realized but for 
the use made of the space of twenty feet left be- 
tween the rows for raising general crops. 
B2 



34 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

MEDOC. 

r l^TTE district named Medoc lies to the northward 
-^ of Bordeaux, with the River Gironde for its east- 
ern and the ocean for its western boundary, and is a 
peninsula of considerable extent. But the valuable 
portion of it, called " Haut Medoc," is but a narrow 
strip, not more than a mile and a half wide, nor more 
than thirty miles long, occupying the slightly raised 
middle ground between the sandy and sterile " landes" 
of the sea-coast and the rich alluvial ground of the 
river border. Beyond question, tliis narrow belt is 
the most notable piece of all the earth's surface for 
growing red wine. The reader and I are going there 
to-day, not for any purpose of amusement, but on the 
important business of learning how to make red wine, 
we and our countrjTnen being as yet alike lamenta- 
bly ignorant of it. 

Yet it is what we must needs know something 
about, for the wine of our future must be red, and 



M E D o c. 35 

not white. To Medoc we will go to receive our first 
lesson, nor could a better school be found beneath 
sun or moon. 

For my part, I will emulate Pliny when he said, 
" I shall discourse of wine with gravity becoming a 
Koman treating of useful arts and sciences, approach- 
ing my subject, not as a physician, but as a judge, 
who is to pronounce on the physical and moral health 
of the human race." 

A little deep-draft, narrow steamer of sea-going 
model, whose small spluttering wheels tm*ned swiftly 
enough, but to wonderfully little purpose, conveyed 
me do^vn to Pauillac, and was all day about it. But 
what if it did go slow? it carried me safe and re- 
turned me sound. I don't know why we should suf- 
fer ourselves to feel contempt for the small craft of 
European rivers and lakes, l^arrow and sea-sicken- 
ing as they are below deck, cramped and shelterless 
as they are above, they are arks of safety to life and 
limb, and an improvement on Noah's, I dare say. 
True, the two boats on which I used to go and come 
between city and country home could either of them 
singly do the whole business of the Upper Rhine, the 
Gironde, or any Swiss lake, without drawing more 
than three feet of water, yet both Boston and Bos- 
tona, the one about the time I am writing of, and the 



36 European Vineyards. 

other tlii'ee years before, took fire and burnt np while 
under full steam, making excellent speed, and full- 
fi'eighted with passengers and goods. 

But, though it took all day, the day was not lost. 
There was a good deal to see. We were continually 
passing inward-bound ships of every nationality, rid- 
ina- at anchor till the flood should come and tide 
them up to the city, there to discharge their varied 
cargoes and again reload, two in every three of them 
with claret and cognac. One of them bore the flag 
of my coimtry, and as I gazed on its folds I knew it 
would soon be waving proudly over a homeward- 
bound cargo of as inferior Hquor as Bordeaux could 
export. 

The deck was crowded with people, mostly of the 
peasant class, and all of them going to vintage. The 
freight piled up forward, casks, baskets, and queerly- 
f ashioned tubs, was going to vintage too, and every 
thing spoke of festive labor. The men wore blouses, 
mostly of blue linen, and the women had only caps 
for bonnets ; yet really both men and women seemed 
to me better dressed than the working-people I had 
left at home. Perhaps this was less owing to the 
quality of the stuffs worn, though few were poor 
enough to appear in calico, than to the fitness of the 
costumes for the daily avocations of the wearers. 



M B D o c. 37 

Then. for their deportment — I don't know how they 
would have appeared if translated to the saloon of 
fashion — awkwardly enough, perhaps ; but, taken as 
they were, in their habitual sphere, the manners of 
those Bordelais peasants were such as our people can 
never emulate, I fear. They were, in a word, respect- 
ful and ceremonious, yet natural and easy ; graceful, 
yet simple ; gay and talkative, yet quiet and reposed. 

French theorists have claimed, be it known, that 
although a select class of English or Russians may, 
by mere dint of high breeding, become civilized and 
refined, yet the masses of their fellow-countrymen, 
as well as of all peoples who are without wine, must 
forever remain barbarians. If there be any thing 
in this theoiy, I would prayerfully entreat the Genius 
of Civilization, or the Spirit of the Age, or god Bac- 
chus, to take up bodily the whole American people, 
men, women, and children, youths and misses — es- 
pecially the youths and misses — and plunge us all 
up to the lips in a sea of the proper liquid, therein 
to soak and thereof to swallow, until politeness shall 
penetrate all om* joints and muscles, and refinement 
enter into the texture of our bones. 

There were some oysters on board — Medoc oysters, 
of great repute through France, as were their ances- 
tors among the Romans. As early as the fourth cen- 



38 European Yineyakds. 

tury they were mentioned in somebody's writings as 
"a shell-fish as much esteemed on the tables of the 
emperors as were the excellent wines brought from 
Bordeaux." I tasted them in as impartial a mood 
as Pliny's, as I afterward did the other celebrated 
kind brought from Ostend, but in neither, could I 
find any excuse for Roman gluttony, nor any thing- 
else worth swallowing. "Watery, thin, and coppery 
are Em-ope's best oysters, and watery and fishy are 
her worst. 

Near the close of the day we arrived at Pauillac, 
and I found out and entered a little old inn in the 
heart of a labyrinth of narrow streets, where a tough, 
chirpy old woman received me as if she had always 
known and long been expecting me. She seemed to 
know just what I wanted to learn, and, ha-ving shown 
me the chamber where I was to lodge, and the parlor 
where I was to eat, took me to the kitchen, and dis- 
played the preparations she was making for a band 
of vintagers soon to come in from their work in the 
vineyards — for she was herself a proprietor, it seem- 
ed. Lifting the lid of a large kettle, and letting me 
smell of a savory mess within, she told me it was 
the vintage broth, a dish of great antiquity. Judg- 
ing from the preparations, the "vantage band was a 
large one ; in fact, she had a farm of no small value 



M E D o c. 39 

—was rich, in fact, but it was lier humor to keep 
tavern. The proprietors, she said, always fed the 
bands of vintagers, and gave them three repasts daily; 
the first, at eight o'clock, consisted of only bread and 
grapes ; the second, in the field, at noon, of soup and 
soup-meat ; and the last, in the evening, of soup and 
a ragout of meats. Bread and wine were supplied 
"(^ discretion,'' which means without stint. The 
wine is made of mferior grapes, gathered from 
yomig vines usually, crushed and put into a barrel 
with the head out. As soon as fermentation has 
well begun, a certain quantity of water is poured in, 
the cask is tapped at the foot, and the liquor placed 
at the discretion of the drinkers. One fi'anc a day is 
paid to the cutters, as those are called who cut the 
o-rapes from the vines, and for such as carry them to 
the wagon a franc and a half. But a few years 
ago wages were one fourth lower. 

After my dinner I had grapes for dessert, and 
they were choice bunches, and good as any I after- 
ward tasted in M^doc, but I could not call them de- 
Ucious. Nor did I any where in France, Switzer- 
land, or Germany, find any to equal the Catawbas of 
the Ohio Yalley in their prime. 

In the evening I went to see a vintage dance at a 
chateau just outside the town. Under a shed, lighted 



40 European Vineyards. 

with a single caudle, twenty or thirty of the younger 
vintagers were dancing in wooden shoes on the bare 
ground. The figure was simply the old pantaloon 
cotillon of " forward two," " cross over," " right hand 
left," " dos a dos," and " ladies' chain," only the coup- 
les were placed in two opposite rows, as in a contra 
dance, and not as in a quadrille, so that the dancers 
were continually in motion. Occasionally this was 
varied by a few rounds in waltzing order, perform- 
ed with a kind of balance ste23, the partners holding 
hands and facing each other. They did not hug, as 
fashionable people do, nor was there any rudeness, 
or romping, or boisterous conduct of the men, and 
far less any sign of drunkenness. 

A hurdy-gurdy, played by the overseer of the 
troop, was all the music they had. The overseer is 
a kind of middle-man, who recruits the band in the 
neighboring and poorer districts, and conducts them 
from place to place while vintage lasts, sub-letting 
them at a price which yields him a profit of two or 
three cents daily on the labor of each person, 

I had seen vintage dances before this, at the thea- 
tre, but there was always a row of brilhant foot- 
lights, and a large orchestra, and the dancers wore 
blue and red bodices, with clean chemises, and broad 
straw hats adorned with gay ribbons, and had neat 



M E D o c. 41 

slippers on their feet, and pink stockings on tlieir 
legs, quite unlike any thing to be seen in the stable- 
yard at Pauillac. One of the wooden shoes, flung 
fi'om a maiden's foot as she whirled by in a waltz, 
struck my Imee with centrifugal force. As the Cin- 
derella who OMaied it kept on with her dancing, I 
had time to examine the "sabot." It was nicely 
made, of good shape, and light, furnished with a 
simple leather " upper" nailed to the edge of the 
sole. The cost was only seventy-five cents the pair. 
Many people in France, who live in the countiy, 
wear this kind of shoe in muddy weather from choice, 
and thus avoid many a malady. An American, with 
common sense enough to adopt them for himself and 
family, could save sufficient between the birth and 
coming of age of his oldest child to buy a farm. 

" Here is where they sleep," said my guide, as he 
stopped before an open door. I looked in, and saw 
merely a large room in an out-building, the floor of 
which was covered with a comfortable thickness of 
clean straw, upon which straw some forty vintage 
youths and maidens were to sleep that night. This, 
they told me, was the usual mode of lodging the la- 
borers. They seemed very happy — and why should 
not they be? those trooping bands, tramping fi-om 
one merry harvest to another, seeing the world for 



42 European Vineyards, 

nothing, free for the time from home restraints, fed 
and lodged in foul weather as well as fair, earning 
wherewith to buy clothes for the year by light, so- 
cial, and agreeable labor in the day, and enjoying a 
vintage ragout and vintage dance in the evening, eat- 
ing "a discretion," drinking "a discretion," and sleep- 
ing "a discretion." 

Wlien I went down to breakfast the foUo"^ving 
morning, I found madame was already up and a-field, 
having left her only domestic to attend upon her only 
lodger. Mathilde informed me M. Averous had been 
to call on me, and had left his compliments, with the 
offer of his services to conduct me to see the vintage. 
It was the landlady, I learned, who had obtained for 
me this polite attention. To lose no time, I waited 
on myself while Mathilde ran to bring a hack. 

Thanks to a soft, fair, welcoming kind of weather, 
such as makes you feel at home in a strange land, I 
could go in an open carriage. French towns take 
small space, and in five minutes I was beyond the 
outer borders of Pauillac, and going along a vine- 
bordered countiy road, where, for leagues on either 
side, nothing hindered the ^aew. Soon we began to 
pass wagons loaded with fi'uit on its way to the vats, 
each drawn by two oxen of a most noble breed. 
Their color was a tawny drab, and their horns white. 



M E D o c. 43 

They seemed thorouglily trained, and moved along 
in a dignified manner, as if they drew their load of 
their own fi'ee will, and not from fear of the slight 
rod armed with only half an inch of darning-needle, 
carried, rather as a guide than a goad, by a man who 
walked beside them without blasphemy or loud words 
of any kind. It means something that the French 
use the word " conductor" where we say " di-iver." 

Every ox wore a net over his face — quite a neat 
thing, too — and a cloth that covered the back and 
hmig down to the knees, which were for protection 
against insects such as swarm from the low lands of 
the river border. This highly-esteemed race is the 
result of kind and judicious treatment, as much as 
of the rich pastures of the Gironde. 

In Ohio I could never get an ox-driver to un- 
dertake any hea^y work without a fresh sea-grass 
snapper at the end of his short-handled, rattlesnake- 
looking whip, nor unless his own lungs were in good 
order for swearing. In one year I received the res- 
ignations of two good drivers, tendered solely be- 
cause their lungs had given out. Both were good 
men, and really meant nothing but business when 
they swore and scourged. Wliat breed of beast such 
evil influences and rude discipline will produce the 
future will reveal. 



M EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

It was Fourier who taught that, so soon as man- 
kind shall learn to take good care and make good 
use of the domestic animals they already have, the 
Creator will give them others more perfect and more 
useful. I don't know what authority the pliilosopher 
had for this promise, but am sure the ass-drivers of 
Naples and ox-drivers of some parts of America will 
have to wait a good while yet for the prize animals 
which are to reward their humanity, while one might 
fancy that in the Percheron horse and oxen such as 
I have described, the French people had already re- 
ceived their recompense. 

The large group of cutters to which I was direct- 
ed to find tlie Messrs, Averous evinced that those 
gentlemen cultivated on no small scale. One of them 
came to the carriage to receive me, and I soon found 
myself at home in the busy compau}^, and fell to eat- 
ing grapes and asking questions, the first one being 
why were the vine-leaves so spotted in many jjarts 
of the field ? It was verdigris, that had been sprin- 
kled on the outer ranges of vines to keep away birds. 
Whether it poisoned or frightened them I now for- 
get ; but a bird that comes fluttering about and drink- 
ing, " h discretion," wine worth a dollar the bottle, 
without a cent in its pocket, is a sponge, and deserves 
verdigris. 



M E D o c, 45 

The organization of tlie vintage troop I found to 
be quite systematic. Firet there is the rank and file, 
mostly women and children, who go along between 
the rows, one in each space, and gather the fi'uit into 
tight baskets. These cut off the bunches with knives, 
and are called " cutters." Following within easy 
reach of the cutters, along alleys which cross the 
rows at suitable and regular distances, go the wag- 
ons, each containing two short upright casks without 
heads, and drawn by a yoke of oxen. Between these 
and the cutters come and go men who carry on their 
backs, with the help of shoulder-straps, the' common 
deep, oval tub, of size to hold five baskets, such as 
the cutters carry, and called " hotte." The liotte- 
bearer has in his hand a stout walking-stick, which 
serves to prop his burden so as to relieve him of its 
weight while standing still waiting on the cutters. 
His vessel filled, the hotte -bearer carries it to the 
wagon, mounts it by a short step-ladder, dumps his 
load into one of the casks by a quick inclination of 
the body, and then, with liis stick, stirs about the 
grapes to pack them well down. Over all is the 
" commandant," whose name implies his duties. His 
insignia of ofiice is a long slender lath, to the end of 
which is fijied a willow twig. When a cutter com- 
mits a fault, such as leaving a bunch ungathered, or 



46 European Vineyards. 

not properly culling out the green or decayed ber- 
ries, instead of calling it to her notice by words, 
which would draw the attention of the whole group 
and cause a considerable loss of time, he lightly 
touches her shoulder with the tip of the twig. 

Every twelve cutters had two hotte-bearers and 
one commandant. Such a force will in a day har- 
vest a " hectare," about two acres and a half, bear- 
ing the average yield of Medoc, which is 625 gal- 
lons, or 250 to the acre — a very large yield, consid- 
ering the fine quality of the wine. This is good 
work, but they go early to the field, and never wait 
for the dew to dry from the fruit, as is common else- 
where, since they do not fear it will do any harm in 
the vat. 

The rows were three feet apart in all the Medoc 
vineyards I saw, and the vines the same distance 
from each other in the rows. They stood on httle 
ridges flung up against them by the last of the four 
plowings which they aimually receive, two of which 
uncover, and the other two cover their feet. 

The plow they use is of wood, except a plate of 
iron in form of a long tiiangle with which it is shod, 
and has but one handle, being, in fact, no other than 
the E-oman implement of Yirgil's time. It is drawn 
by two oxen yoked abreast, one of which treads in 



M E D o c. 47 

the space between the rows where the plow is mov- 
ing, and the other in the next one. The beam is 
curved quite curiously to insure the proper bearing 
and direction, and must of course pass above the 
tops of the vines, stakes, trellis, and all ; and, strange 
to say, all of these are kept within the low statm'e 
of fifteen inches for no other purpose than to allow 
the plow -beam to pass over them. If there were 
ever any other reasons for this Liliputian training, 
tliis is the only one that has come doT\m from the 
remote antiquity which clouds the origin of the cus- 
toms of Medoc. 

One of the gentlemen took me to see the wine- 
making in a large old stone building near by. On 
entering the spacious and high press-room, the first 
thing to see was a circle of workmen engaged in 
stemming the grapes. They were standing within a 
shallow box, or rather a wide platform with a low 
rim, built up about three feet above the floor, very 
much resembling the dish of a common wdne-press, 
but quite large, measuring ten feet each way, and 
called " pressoir." Its bottom pitched a little on one 
side, and was grooved to let the must flow fi*eely 
away; and in the rim of the lower edge was an 
opening about a foot w^ide, beneath which was a 
large tub of 200 gallons' capacity, to receive the 



48 European Vineyards. 

liquid, called a " gargouille." The men were at work 
about a sort of table which stood in the centre of the 
"pressoir," having for a top a grating or screen made 
of rods of half -inch iron, and bordered with a low 
rim of wood. The rods running the shorter way 
were supported in the middle by passing through a 
bar one and a half inch by half an inch, but those 
running the longer way were fastened only at their 
ends, and rested on the others rather loosely. Close 
to the pressoir was a doorway opening into the yard, 
at which a wagon was being unloaded as I entered, 
which was done by bringing the casks from the wag- 
on directly through the door and on to the floor of 
the pressoir, which last was on the same level with 
the sill of the door and bed of the wagon, so that no 
lifting need be done. The contents of the casks 
were dumped close to the table or screen. Then, 
having flung a few bushels of the grapes upon the 
screen, the workmen took their places about it and 
began to rub them on it with their hands, the berries 
passing through the meshes, and leaving the stems 
behind. Soon currents of red juice crept out from 
beneath the mass of crushed grapes mider the table, 
and, flowing along grooves in the floor of the press- 
oir, ran out through the opening in the rim and into 
the gargouille beneath. It needed but a short time 



M E D o c. 49 

to make an end of the wagon-load, and then the ta- 
ble was set on one side, and the heap accumulated 
beneath and about it was shoveled out, by way of the 
same opening which the juice went through, into 
tubs made of barrels sawed in two, with sticks pass- 
ing through holes bored in the staves, and projecting 
on either side, for handles. As these were filled, they 
were carried up to the top of the vat and flung in. 
The juice accumulated in the gargouille was car- 
ried and poured into the vat by means of the same 
tubs. 

Climbing by a ladder to the level of the rims of 
the long row of vats which lined one side of the 
press-house, I could see that two of them were full, 
and the contents already fermenting, covered with 
only a thick float of stems. 

The vats were of oak, iron-bound, eight feet deep, 
ten feet wide at the bottom, and nine at the top. The 
hoops were not riveted, but were clasped where the 
ends met by short screw-bolts passing through flanges 
or ears, the bolts serving to tighten the joints of the 
staves when necessary. Each vat would hold four 
thousand gallons. 

No other crushing was given to the grapes than 
what they necessarily got in being rubbed through 
the meshes of the screen. 

C 



50 EuROPEAnViNE YARDS. 

On taldng my leave, I received valuable instruc- 
tions how to shape my course in my proposed circuit 
among the great houses of the canton, and also what 
was very j)leasant — an invitation to dinner — which I 
incontinently accepted. 

After quitting the Averous farm, my course lay 
along a wide, gently-swelling ridge of gravelly land, 
and commanding an extensive view in every direc- 
tion. The face of the country was rolling, and di- 
vided into long, low swells of high ground occupied 
by vines, and wide intermediate flats hardly above 
the level of the Gironde, partly devoted to grain and 
partly abandoned to a coarse pasturage. These flats 
render Medoc unhealthy, so much so that its people 
are weak, indolent, and apathetic ; and " mountain- 
eers," as they call the inhabitants of the hill-countrj'-, 
are employed in considerable numbers to do the 
heavy work, at extra wages. Perhaps it was from 
the same reason that many of the houses on the great 
estates, and the grounds about them, appeared neg- 
lected beyond what one would expect to see on such 
valuable domains. 

If I remember well, the soil along the road all tlie 
way, or nearly all the way to St. Juljen, showed little 
variation, being mostly of coarse gravel — quite coarse, 
the pebbles being as large as hickory and hazel nuts. 



Me DOC. 51 

Nor could I notice much variety in the modes of 
training or in the degree of care bestowed. Westerly 
winds from the ocean often sweep violently over the 
peninsula, and, but for the very low training, would 
make havoc among high trellis or staked vines, and 
possibly I have here discovered a second reason for a 
custom to explain which a very high authority could 
give me no other than that it was to let the plow 
pass. 

I noticed the shoots that had mounted above the 
tops of the laths of the trellis had a close CKopped 
look, as if they had been trimmed like a hedge. And 
the driver said it was so ; that it was usual, at blos- 
soming time to mow off, with a short scythe, both the 
tops and sides of the vines, in order to clear the way 
for the oxen and plow, which also served instea(r of 
pinching in. 

LA TOUE. 

The sight near at hand of " a stern round tower 
of other days" admonished me I was entering the do- 
main of Chateau la Tour, one of the three reigning 
houses of Ilaut M^doc, by decree of the Bordeaux 
Chamber of Commerce and the suffrages of princely 
drinkers the world over ranking number one in a 
classification of a select sixty chosen from among the 



52 European Vineyards. 

many thousand " vignoblei'' of a district where all is 
choice and fine. When the Franks invaded Gaul and 
first drank of the juice of its grapes, they honored 
the vine that bore them with the name vigne noble 
(noble vine), whence comes vignohle, the French for 
■vT^neyard. But La Tour is more than noble. It has 
been crowned a king. 

Surromided by a field of little low vines, as insig- 
nificant to look at as any of the others, stood a hand- 
some new chateau, with press-house, store-houses, sta- 
bles, etc., close by, w^hile ap&,rt from all, and rising 
fi'om among the hop-o-my-thumb trellis was a stately 
antique tower, giving dignity, character, interest, and 
name to the place. 

A gentleman of distinguished look, with two la- 
dies, was walking toward the house as I drew near. 
I saluted him, and asked pennission to walk about 
the property. " If Monsieur will be good enough to 
wait a moment, the ' regisseur' will be here and will 
conduct him." The regisseur, or steward coming up, 
I was presented and turned over to him. He showed 
me to the press-house. A pile of grapes, already 
stemmed, was heaped in conical form on the pressoir, 
and five or six men, with trowsers rolled above the 
knees, were trotting about in a circle, trampling the 
pile under foot, beginning at the outer circumference. 



M E D o c. 53 

and gradually contracting their circuit till they met 
in the middle and on the top of the cone. This they 
call ^'-fouler a jpied^'' (crushing with feet). There 
might be a cleaner way of doing the thing ; I don't 
think there could be a fouler. 

The regisseur made no apology for the sight, nor 
did the trotters seem the least ashamed. Wherever 
I went that day, except at the Averous farm and 
Chateau Lafitte, this. mode of crushing was in prac- 
tice. It is said no other so effectually crushes the 
pulp without breaking 'the seed — in fact, that it is 
important for the quality of the wine that it be 
trodden out with naked feet. It is also said, and 
very tndy, that soap and water will cleanse the feet 
as well as the hands. 

At -one place I visited I inquired of the workmen 
if they washed their feet before trampling on the 
grapes, and was told they did not. One of them en- 
lightened my ignorance by explaining that wine had 
the power to fling off all impurities, so that it was of 
no sort of consequence how free they made with it. 
No doubt there is a good deal to be said on the oth- 
er side of this question of dirt. I confess that what 
I saw and heard disturbed my old notions. At aU 
events, the Medoc vintagers acted as if quite sure of 
their chemical deductions, and would walk with bare 



54 European Vineyards. 

feet slap dasli through puddle and mud, and mount 
the juicy heap with the assured tread of men firmly 
grounded in their principles. 

Several of the vats at La Tour were already full, 
and fermentation was well under way in some of 
them, but none were covered with any thing at all ; 
and this was the case at many other houses. 

On my asking the regissem- how long he allowed 
the wine to remain in the vat, he told me the period 
varied from three or four days up to one month. 
This astonished me. He explained that, though fer- 
mentation might fully accomplish itself in a fort- 
night at farthest, even when the season was bad for 
ripening, yet that in such case it was needful to give 
time not only for fermentation to come to an end, 
but also for the greener portions of the pulp remain- 
ing undecomposed and suspended in the liquid to 
sink to the bottom. And that very vintage, he said, 
would need a month in the vat. 

The regisseur's account of the precautions taken 
in drawing off, barreling, filling up, etc., satisfied me 
the great reputation of Medoc wines was much more 
the result of care and skill in " conducting" it, as they 
say, from the vat to the bottle, than is generally sup- 
posed. 

When the time comes for drawing off from tlie 



M E D o c. 55 

vats and putting into barrels, they proceed as fol- 
lows: a sufficient number of new "barriques" (of 
nearly sixty gallons' capacity) to contain all the fii'st 
quality of wine that has been made in all the vats 
are prepared by a simple washing with tepid water, 
followed by a rinsing with wine or brandy, and then 
drained until quite dry, and arranged in one or more 
rows on the floor of the cellar. 

The vat is then tapped at the bottom, and the wine 
allowed to flow into a large tub at its foot, whence 
it is dipped out by means of oblong buckets, poured 
into the two-man tubs with sticks for handles before 
described, and carried and distributed among the 
barriques, not by entirely filling first one and then 
another, but by carefully dividing the contents of 
the vat equally among them all, so that when the 
man at the faucet, seeing the liquid begin to'rmi 
somewhat thick, turns the key and shuts off all far- 
ther flow, each and every barrique shall have re- 
ceived its equal share of the contents of the vat. The 
same process being repeated with each of the other 
vats, it follows that the wine in the barriques is uni- 
form in color and quality, Avliich is especially impor- 
tant where such small receptacles are used. Thus 
is made quahty number one. 



56 European Vineyards. 

The turbid wine left in the vat is then drawn off, 
and set apart as quality number three. 

The mass of skins and seeds still remaining at the 
bottom, and which is called " rape^^ is then pressed 
with a machine resembling circular cider -presses, 
such as are now seen in use, and makes quality num- 
ber four. Formerly numbers three and four were 
put together. 

Number two is made from fruit grown on inferior 
soils or exposures, or that is, from any cause, imper- 
fectly ripened. Grapes from young vines are also 
deemed unfit to mingle their juice with number one. 

During the fii'st month after the drawing off, the 
bungs are allowed to rest loosely, on their holes, and 
twice a week the barriques are filled up. At the 
end of the month linen is wrapped about the bungs, 
and they are driven home. After that the filhng up 
is done once a week. In March the wine is again 
drawn off. This is again done in June, as well as in 
October or November ; but by some the June draw- 
ing off is omitted. In March of the second year the 
wine is again drawn off, after which the position of 
the barriques is so far changed, by turning them 
slightly on one side, that the bung shall always be 
wet, and the air-bubble rest a few inches away from 
it. From this time on, the drawing off is done only 



M E D o c, 57 

twice yearly, in March and August. At the end of 
three or four yeai-s the wine is ready for the bottle 
and for the market. In the drier climate of our 
country I am sm'e the term might be shortened by 
one third. 

Great care is taken to keep the wine from any ac- 
cess of air when being drawn off. The common 
way is to place the empty cask beside the full one, 
connect the two with a tube of gutta-percha two 
feet long, allow the contents of the full one to flow 
into the other till the quantity is equal in both, ap- 
ply a strong bellows to the bung-hole of the cask to 
be emptie'd, fitting it tightly, and blow out the re- 
mainder. Another plan is to place the full one im- 
mediately over the empty one, and let the contents 
flow into the latter through a tube reaching nearly 
to the bottom, in order that there shall be as Httle 
" churning" as possible. 

The wastage from all causes between the first 
barreling and the final clarification for bottling is 
twenty-five per cent., and the cost of producing and 
conducting a gallon to the bottling stage is about 
seventy cents ; with interest added, it would amount 
to a dollar. Considering that this estimate assumes 
the yield of an acre to be 250 gallons, which is about 
the average both of favorable and unfavorable soils, 
C2 



58 European Vineyards. 

it shows that labor and care are needed, as well as 
silicious and ferruginous gravel, and that not wholly 
to luck does Medoc owe its high reputation. 

It seems the climate of Medoc is too damp to per- 
mit of storing wine in cellars under ground. For- 
tunately, however, and perhaps from the same cause, 
it may be safely kept in store-rooms on the ground 
level. During the first one or two years it is stored 
in an ordinarily light but close apartment ; after that 
it is kept sedulously in the dark, as well as from all 
access of outside air. It is deemed a sign that the 
room is not dark enough if the mould which accu- 
mulates largely on the casks is green instead of 
white. 

About ten feet above the floor of the store-room 
is a ceiling which forms an attic overhead. This 
attic is kept as close in all weathers as the store-room 
itself, and a pretty warm place it must be in mid- 
summer. The safety of the wine seems to depend 
on keeping the temperature, whatever it may be, as 
even as possible, since it is by changes of tempera- 
ture that the wine in the cask is made to swell or di- 
minish, thereby respiring new air, as it were. 

Wine of the vintage of 1865 was uncommonly 
good, and so was the regisseur to give me some of it. 
He took me into the dark and musty inner apartment 



M E D o c. 59 

where it lay, and there, on the very spot of its origin, 
I saw it drawn from the original package. Of course 
I found it the best wine, either red or white, I had 
ever tasted. Nevertheless, I was not dismayed, and 
I turned away from the precincts of La Tom* with 
more hope and faith than ever in the Norton's Vir- 
ginia Seedling. 

• 

PICHON-LONGUEVrLLE. 

From La Tour I was driven to the beautiful cha- 
teau of Pichon - Longueville, owned by a baron of 
that name. Looking at it, I wondered if the time 
would ever come for American vine-dressers to build 
houses like it from the profits of a hundred acres of 
ground too poor to bear muUens. Finding my way 
directly to the press-house, without troubling any one 
to give me permission or show me through, I was 
glad to find the workmen lounging about in the in- 
terval between dining and going to work again — the 
best time for getting questions answered. All was 
much the same as at La Tour, except that every vat 
in which fermentation had begun was covered with 
matched boards, closely fitted and plastered to the 
rim with clay or some kind of cement, so as to allow 
no escape for gas except through a tin tube of siphon 
shape, with its upper mouth submerged in a vessel 



60 European Vineyards. 

of water — an apparatus well known in this country. 
Great importance is attached to the siphon and wa- 
ter-dish at Pichon-Longueville, but why did I meet 
with it nowhere else in Medoc ? 

Outside the gateway of the chateau was a compost- 
heap, to which mud from the river marshes was be- 
ing hauled, as well as stable manure. They told me 
the«compost thus formed and well rotted was the only 
manure tolerated in Medoc, and that even this was 
feared by some proprietors, who enriched their vine- 
yards with mud alone, or turf, or swampy earth, at 
the risk of debasing the natural soil, since large quan- 
tities are required if no richer material is mingled 
with these. Compost is apphed in various ways. At. 
Pichon-Longueville they spread it over the surface 
and plow it in. Others fill with it little excavations 
made around the feet of the vines, while others again 
bury it in trenches midway between the rows, eight 
inches wide, and deep enough to escape the plow. 
The ill effects of manure on the quality of the wine 
are not supposed to accrue in any direct manner, but 
to result simply fi*om the sap and luxuriance of the 
plant which it induces. Freshly-manured vines and 
those newly planted are placed in the same category, 
the fruit of both being deemed equally unfit for 
growing wine of the first quality ; but, were not ma- 



M E D o c. 61 

miring sparingly and carefully done in Medoc, I am 
sm-e the wine aifected by it woidd go do^vvn at least 
one step lower in the scale. There are proprietors 
who do not manure their vines oftener than every 
twenty years — as those of Leoville, for instance. The 
greater nmnber do it every seven, eight, nine, or ten 
years, while some wait only five, and some only three. 

LAFITTE. 

After a pretty wide circuit, which brought within 
view many celebrated estates, I made the next halt 
at Chateau Lafitte. There, as at the Averous farm, 
they did not dance upon the grapes, the stemming 
process giving all the crushing thought necessary. 
N^ow, through nearly eveiy wine district of France, 
they will tell you that crushing with bare feet is so 
important, no considerations can be allowed to dis- 
pense with it. But do they not dispense with it at 
Lafitte ? and is not Lafitte a chateau of the first class ? 
'Perhaps the omission of the ceremony there is an in- 
novation of the present owner, Sir William Scott. 
The British aristocracy are growing so fond of the 
wines of Medoc, a good deal of its soil is getting to 
be owned across the Channel ; but, naturally enough, 
they like to import as little of it in solution as can be 
helped. 



62 European YiNEYAEDs. 

I saw them using tlie small round press I have 
mentioned to extract tlie juice of the few berries, 
mostly imripe, which still adhered to the stems after 
being rubbed. 

A cursory observation would fail to detect in the 
pebbly surface at Lafitte, any more than at La Tour, 
any thing to distinguish it from a good many others 
growing wines of only second, third, fourth, or fifth 
class, or no class at all. But the uniformity is only 
apparent, and there is nothing occult in the matter. 
The ground of the Lafitte vineyards is of the fol- 
lowing composition : 

Silicious pebbles, nut size 629.00 parts. 

Fine sand 283.00 " 

Pure silex 62.20 " 

Humus 12.80 " 

Alumina 7.50 " 

Lime 40.00 " 

Iron 86.00 " 

Loss 4.60 " 

Such is the composition of a soil capable of pro- 
ducing the very best wine. Next in excellence is a 
sandy surface underlaid with quite fine sihcious grav- 
el. After these two comes a surface of limestone 
pebbles, immediately resting on strong beds of shelly 
limestone or marly clay ; and, last of all, soils where 
clay predominates. 



Me DOC. 63 

Iron, forming nearly nine per cent, of the choice 
soil of Lafitte, is found in similar proportions in all 
other choice Medoc soils of the gravelly kind, and it 
is well known that it causes the wines grown upon 
such to deepen in color as they grow older, instead of 
fading, as is usual, Tlie small proportion of lime, 
only f om* per cent., will also be noticed by those curi- 
ous in grape soils, as also the general poverty of the 
whole mass. 

Draining has long been practiced in the tenacious 
alios, or hard-pan subsoil of much of the Medoc re- 
gion. Tile are already in use, yet many still insist 
that the old-fashioned brush-wood and broken stone 
drains are better. 

LEOVILLE. 

The next domain I stopped at was nearly two miles 
from the last, in the adjoining commune of St. Julien. 
Chateau Leoville is of the second class. There, too, 
the vats had only loose boards for covering. Thus 
had I seen since morning vats wholly uncovered, vats 
covered with closely-sealed boards, others with loose 
boards, and others still with only a float of grape- 
stems. When such diversity of practice is found 
among skillful and practiced wine-makers, is it not 
l^est for the American beginner to buy some book 



64 European YiNEYARDS. 

that will instruct him in but one way of conducting 
the wine through every step of its progress, and con- 
fidingly follow all its teachings, without troubling 
himself with running after his own facts or spinning 
his own theories ? I think not ; and the method of 
this volume is to present — as it was of my explora- 
tions to collect — as many noteworthy facts as possi- 
ble, let them perplex and puzzle as they may. 

All the arrangements at Leoville were the best I 
had any where seen, and for the grapes they gave me 
I can pay them tliis compliment, that they were al- 
most as good as I had eaten at home. 

cos d'estotjknel. 

Another wide circuit, and I found myself driving 
by a carved stone gateway showing the royal arms 
of Britain as large as life. It was the entrance to 
Chateau Cos d'Estournel, owned by the heirs of an 
English gentleman named Martyn. Soon after jjass- 
ing it the driver drew up before a second chateau, be- 
longing to the same family, called Pomys, and a fine 
old building too. A polite old Frenchman received 
me with an apology for the absence of the director, 
and showed me through not only the vines and wine- 
houses, but the chateau, barns, stables, etc., very well 
worth seeing, and all bearing the stamp of English 



Medoc. 65 

order and neatness. But all his English associations 
had failed to make an Englishman of my old con- 
ductor, or he would never have declined the money I 
hesitatingly offered on taking leave. 

The grating upon which they were stemming 
grapes in the press-room of Pomys was framed of 
oak bars one inch thick on the face and two and a 
half inches deep, and the meshes, or openings, were 
one inch wide hy eighteen long. On the grating the 
fruit was rubbed by means of a rake, also of oak, the 
teeth being of the same stuff and dimensions as the 
bai's of the grating, set edgewise to the line of the 
handle, and sharpened at the ends. The handle was 
long. 

In this connection I will describe a utensil for 
stemming grapes which I think the best I have yet 
seen. It is the one used at the Longworth Wine- 
house in Cincinnati. 

A tub flaring at the top, three feet high and four 
feet across at its greatest diameter, is fitted with a 
cover made of one-inch thick wliite-oak board, which 
rests on shoulders that sustain it 28 inches above the 
bottom,. and seven inches below the top of the tub. 
The cover has a strong cross-piece on the under side 
to keep it fi'om warping. It is pierced with holes of 
the diameter of one inch on the upper surface, and 



06 European Vineyards. 

an inch and a half on the lower, the holes being four 
inches apart, measuring from centre to centre. 

Wine of Cos d'Estournel, which ranlcs in the sec- 
ond class, sells for 2500 francs per cask of four bar- 
riques, called " tonneau," while that of its next neigh- 
bor, Pomys, of no class at all, brings only 1000 francs. 

The market value of the various classes will appear 
in the following table, which gives the prices estab- 
lished for the vintage of IS 62. Each tonneau con- 
taining 912 litres, and each litre being equal to 
1.760773 pint imperial measm-e, and the franc being 
equal to about 20 cents in real money, every reader 
may reckon for himself. 

1st class 4000 francs. 

2d " 3000 " 

3d " 2000 " 

4th " 1800 " 

5th " 1500 " 

Bourgeois sup^rieure 1400 " 

The dinner to which I had been invited was eiven 
in honor of the reunion of six college mates, of 
whom two were the young Messrs. Averous, two were 
young and \gy\ jolly priests, one M-as an English- 
man, and the other a Bostoiiian. It was pleasant to 
drink authentic Medoc in its very home, and equally 
pleasant to witness the enjoyment of the college 



M E D o c. 67 

friends. The priests were as good fellows as any of 
the rest, but French priests are never required to 
assume a vinegar aspect, and driiik melted ice on 
principle. 



68 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTEE y. 

SAUTERNE. 

"F GOT upon the boat next day, and returned to 
Bordeaux once again, whence, on the following 
morning, I took the cars for Agen by a route that 
ascended the valley of the River Garonne. At 
Langon a gentleman entered the carriage where I 
was whom I found could give me full information 
concerning the vine district I had just traversed in 
the preceding half hour's ride. It was the district 
where is grown the fine white wines known mider 
the general name of Sauterne. 

He told me the soil was in some places of gravel, 
in others of sand, and in others of clay mixed with 
sand and underlaid with limestone. They plant 
their vin5s about three feet apart in both directions. 
They prune them low, the two or three canes allowed 
on each stock, or souche, being cut back to two eyes 
each. Leaf -pruning is practised to excess. Begin- 
ning early in September, they proceed Avith it gradu- 



Sauteene. 69 

ally, but severely, so that before vintage, the fruit, 
little by little robbed of all its natural shelter, hangs 
naked to the sun's rays. 

Three gatherings are made; the first culls from 
each bunch only a few excessively ripe berries, the 
second takes such as have ripened to the same exces- 
sive degree since the first, and the third sweeps in 
all the remainder. This protracted vintage hardly 
comes to an end before November. Wine of the 
first gathering is called " head wine ;" of the second, 
" middle wine ;" and of the third, " tail wine." About 
ten per cent, of the whole is of the extremely pre- 
cious first fruit, and about forty per cent, is of the 
second quality. The average yield is about the same 
as in Medoc, 

They manure once in five years, plow thoroughly, 
and cultivate by hand as well, and, from what I 
learned of my railway-carriage informant and from 
other sources, are even more exact and- careful in 
the conduct of their delicate wines than those I had 
just left. 

After the first two or three years Sauterne wine 
is transferred from the barriques into very large tuns 
called "foudres," which hold nearly 2500 gallons. 
While remaining in barriques,' it is drawn off three 
times a year, and filled up twice a week. In f oudres 



TO European Vineyards. 

it is drawn off twice a year, and filled up once a 
week. 

Haut-Santeme is of marvelous delicacy, and is the 
French rival of the wliite wines of the Rhinegau. 

At half past eight next morning the landlord of 
the hotel at Agen said, " Certainly, if the gentleman 
wishes it, I will wake up the cook ; but the gentle- 
man will enjoy his breakfast better if he will wait 
till eleven o'clock, when we have om* table d'hote." 
" I will wait, certainly," I replied, too polite by far ; 
and it is true I enjoyed my breakfast when I got it, 
as any fool might who had waited two hom^s and a 
half. The table was lined with those knights-errant 
of modern times, as Irving calls them, commercial 
travelers, who overrun all civilized countries, beating 
the reveille for customers. Of a truth drumming is 
a hungry exercise, or else Frenchmen are better eat- 
ers than I am used to see; and I here note that 
Americans can not compare with Frenchmen at 
trencher-play, either for quantity or rapidity. The 
commercial eaters at Agen waited patiently, it is 
true, while each of the eight or ten courses was being 
served, but, once started, their speed fi*om station to 
station could not be emulated by us. 



Languedoc. 71 



CHAPTEK VI. 

LANGUEDOC. 

TT^KOM Agen to Toulouse, and tlience to Beziers, 
-*" I took a third-class car. The seats were hard, 
with hard backs. It rained hard without, and they 
smoked hard within. The stoppages were frequent, 
and the speed under twelve miles an hour. It was 
a hard journey ; and I would warn all travelers on 
the Continent who may like to study French charac- 
ter, and sound the feelings of the working classes 
throughout France, that they had better take good 
lodgings in Paris, read carefully some book on the 
subject written by an unprejudiced Englishman and 
rely on its statements, instead of going bumping 
about among blue blouses and wooden shoes, as I did. 
After three or four hours, the rolling of the r-r-r's 
of the incoming passengers reminded me we were 
entering the borders of ancient Languedoc, so named 
fi'om the old language of its people, which was not 
French, but the langue cCoc — a country of great tra- 



72 European Yineyaeds. 

ditions — Roman and civilized, rich and enlightened, 
when Paris was but a seat of barbarians — Paris, 
which now scorns as provincial the rich roll of the 
Languedocian tongue. 

The hands and feet of the peasantry of Languedoc 
are so small, it is difficult to believe them used to 
hard work. They are of a superior bodily constitu- 
tion — blooded animals of Greek and Roman descent ; 
and centuries of labor, deprivation, oppression, perse- 
cution, and ravages of war have failed to bend their 
backs, hollow their chests, make their feet flat, their 
hands broad, or their waists large. Theii' eyes are 
large and black, and their teeth white and clean. 

Having left behind me the Medoc and Sauterne 
districts, where, as is the boast of their cultivators, 
" Nature does much, but man does more," I was ap- 
proaching those happier southern regions where Na- 
ture does a good deal more, and leaves man not near 
so much to do ; where the kindly sun, knowing how 
languid the ardor of his rays renders the arm of man, 
takes upon himself the greater task, and performs it 
by a fuller efflux of creative power, leaving only the 
lesser one for poor lazy mortals to do. 

Happy, beautiful, fi'uitf ul Languedoc ! I will one 
day see you again, please God. * 

So frequent were the stoppages and changes of 



Languedoc. 73 

passengers, that in the course of the day a good many 
different people successively occupied the benches 
neighboring to mine. With most of them I man- 
aged to have some conversation, and they had a good 
deal to say on the subject of \'ine-cultm'e, but it all 
related to -vines trained " en souche-basse," which, as 
I have said, may be translated " stump," " stock," or 
"stool." As I looked out through the v^^indows of 
the carriage, it meant beautiful bushes, flourishing 
over hill, hollow, and plain, from rail-track to hori- 
zon, as good to see as corn on a prairie. Not one 
brown stake or lath was there to mar the green ar- 
ray. Nature, in her strength, had flung the crutch 
away. 

But I was not allowed to do all the questioning, 
and, after receiving my fair share of information, 
was required to give some in return. 

" The gentleman is from America," I heard one 
of my companions say to a woman sitting next him. 
"Ask him, then," she said, "if the men there can 
have as many wives as they like." 

"Yes, madam; some of us take one, two, or as 
many more as we can support, but we do it to car- 
ry out our conscientious convictions — ^just as your 
monks, fi-om an equally high principle, refuse to 
have even one wife." 

D 



74: European Vineyards. 

" Horrible !" she cried. 

"Abominable!" said a priest who had just then 
turned round to listen. 

" Not a bit abominable," growled a gray old farm- 
er from behind me. " Much better have too many 
wives than none at all." 

Tlie priest smiled and took snuff. IS'either he nor 
I had ever before heard the case put in just that 
form. The woman looked down and said nothing. 

Beziers, where I arrived at evening, is one of the 
principal cities of the Department of L'Herault, 
which produces more wine than any other in France. 
The city is in view of the Mediterranean, has thirty 
thousand inhabitants, and is neither very neat, or- 
derly, nor beautiful. In going to Beziers I had 
plunged into the very middle of things, but, as at 
Pauillac, I had no clew to get at them — not so much 
as the name of a single soul in all the place. 

After supper I went to the theatre, and there had 
the good fortune to sit beside a gentleman with 
whom I soon got acquainted, and in whom I found 
the very person I wanted. He gave me his card at 
parting, and invited me to visit him the next day at 
his country residence in the village of Boujon, some 

six miles from the city. I found M. L at his 

distillery, adjoining his cellars. The stills were of 



L A N G U E D O C. T5 

the newest and most complex fashion, more expedi- 
tious than the old well-known copper affairs, such as, 
in our country, good whisky is made with, and made 
probably no exception to the old rule regarding all 
things good to eat or drink, that, to arrive at excel- 
lence, we must travel in a slow coach. The liquor 

made at M. L 's is called "^7*6>^s-s^V — three-six 

literally, but why, I forgot to ask or forget to re- 
member. It is brandy, of course ; but, for some good 
reason, what they make in Languedoc, and in other 
places too, is not called by that name. Some of the 
wine they were distilling when I was there they of- 
fered me to taste. It was the five-cent quality of 
which I have spoken — not five cents per litre, but per 
gallon. 

In the press-house they showed me the vats, which 
were great square cisterns of cement, and covered 
loosely with boards. Cement is admitted to be in- 
ferior to wood, but is cheaper. The cellar of M, 

L was well arranged, well kept, and very large, 

there being ten great casks, each of the capacity of 
about ten thousand gallons. All were not filled 
with five-cent wine, however, some of them contain- 
ing what was considerably better, and not intended 
for distillation. 

As we walked in the vineyards, I could see the 



76 European Vineyards. 

soil was mostly of good gravelly loam, and, if it was 
devoted to growing such extremely cheap wine as I 
have named, it was not because it could not produce 

good crops of wheat. When M. L mentioned 

that the vines of Languedoc were mostly of Spanish 
varieties, introduced when that province was under 
the same crown with Aragon, I recalled that those 
of California, and which are trained in the same 
way, and produce wine so different from what is 
grown any where else in our country, were also of 
Spanish origin. 

M. L took me to his house, a very snug bach- 
elor's home, where, cosily seated by the fire, which 
damp weather and the approach of night rendered 
comfortable, was another gentleman, who had come 
from the city to be his company during vintage time. 
They had been college chums together half a centu- 
ry before. Now, considering that at the last vintage 
gathering I had attended all the company were col- 
lege classmates, perhaps I may safely state in this 
place that it is a French custom for college friends 
to meet at vintage instead of Christmas. "With the 
two old friends I tasted several kinds of the older 
and better wines of the neighborhood ; then, declin- 
ing farther hospitality, I retm-ned to Beziers. 

I resolved I would go farther into the subject of 



Languedoc. 77 

growing wine on tlie Languedoc plan. But to do 
this as thoroughly as I ought would require weeks 
of delay. I must, for the present, turn away fi'om 
the shores of the Mediterranean, and journey north- 
ward and eastward into the great red-wine country 
of Burgundy, if I would catch some of the fleeting 
vintage hours before the harvest-girls have gathered 
the latest, ripest clusters from the '■'■Cote (for'''' — the 
hill-side of gold. The same necessity obliged me to 
travel in the night-time, so that I reached Lyons 
without seeing much of the important valley of the 
Bhone. 

The same day I pushed on to Macon, where I staid 
overnight, and the following morning went on to 
Beaune, a small town at the foot of the Cote d'or, 
and not very far fi'om Dijon, the old capital of Bur- 
gundy. 



78 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTER VII. 

BURGUNDY AND THE COTE d'oR. 

/^F a verity, the heritage of the old dukes was a 
^^ goodly one. To the traveler who goes through 
this fair and rich province, the wonder is, that, with 
such wide and fertile valleys to nourish them — such 
strong, full-bodied drink to nerve them, such rivers 
at their feet and mountains at their backs, the rulers 
of Burgundy did not become kings of France. 

I had never tasted a drop of authentic Burgmidy 
wine in all my life. Few people have who live across 
the seas, for it does not bear transportation, notwith- 
standing its alcoholic strength, which exceeds that of 
Bordeaux wine. Its market being, from the cause 
just given, a limited one, it is sold cheaper than Bor- 
deaux of equal quality. 

Being a stranger, I made no useless attempt to ob- 
tain a very choice sample, but called for a bottle of 
such as bore a moderate price, and, being fatigued, 
went so far as to drink a tumble** full of it. It was 
very palatable and refreshing. 

I had never drunk any before. 



Burgundy and the Cote d ' o k. 7y 

1 have never drunk any since. 

I shall never drink any more. 

Presently 1 will tell you why. 

At my special request, the hotel -keeper procured 
for me a driver who had been a ^'ine-dresser, and was 
well informed concerning what I wanted to know 
about. I think it important the drivers of public 
carriages should be men of intelligence, for a deal 
of information is sought of them. They hold, in 
fact, tlie not very mean position of instructors to the 
traveling world. In Paris some seven hundred ex- 
priests sit upon the box and hold the reins. Maybe 
it is from having educated tutors such as these that 
our American young gentlemen so easily learn all 
the ways of that wonderful city. 

Telling the driver what I wanted, and seating my- 
self beside him, I was driven first toward the village 
of Bligny. The vigorous gi'owth of the vines, as well 
as the appearance of the soil, showed the gi*eat plain 
across which om" course lay to be a rich one. For- 
merly, my guide said, there were but few vineyards 
on the plain, but of late years they tkreatened to 
crowd out every thing else, owing to the increased 
demand for wine of the quality there grown. 

The souches observed no order whatever. Though 
at first planting they are set in regular Hues five feet 



80 European Yine yards. 

apart, and eighteen inches distant from each other 
within the lines, the system of layering, to supply 
losses or restore decaying vines, causes them soon to 
break ranks and straggle liither and yon most con- 
fusedly. One result of layering is, the cultivation 
must be done by hand. They cultivate thoroughly 
three times a year, once in March, once before blos- 
soming, and again after the grapes are well formed. 
I nowhere saw any trellis, but learned they were 
slowly and doubtingly being introduced. They in- 
volve a reconstruction of the entire vineyard where 
adopted, as well as a radical change in the system of 
training. Some of the vines appeared to have been 
pruned very close, leaving only one or two eyes to 
each cane, but reserving several canes. These were 
varieties whose habit is to bear the fi'uit close to the 
souche, or old stock. Others, with a tendency to bear 
from buds farther out on the cane, had three and 
four eyes. 

I inquired what was the price obtained for such 
wine as was commonly produced on the plain, and 
learned it usually brought 65 francs the " piece," con- 
taining 228 litres, the same as the Bordeaux barrique, 
but, owing to the poorness of the present year's crop, 
resulting from hail as well as excessive rains, 120 
francs was being demanded. 



Burgundy and the Cote d'or. 81 

The ordinary qualities of Burgundy wine, as, in- 
deed, of all other wines grown in France, are disposed 
of early, and are generally consumed within one, two, 
or thi'ee years, while fine quahties must be kept and 
cared for during from three to six years. My guide, 
mentioning this, said, for his part, he would rather 
own a vineyard on the plain than on the Cote d'or. 

On the plains all kinds of manure seem to be used : 
stable-sweepings, oil-cake, bone-dust, guano, and rags. 
I believe, though, manure is only applied in layering, 
that operation being so frequent that the whole vine- 
yard gets enriched by the share allotted to the layered 
plants. The usual number of souches to an acre is 
five thousand. 

The vintage had nearly come to an end ; only here 
and there, at wide intervals, did we encounter the 
bands at their work, or a wagon on its way to the 
press-house. 

" What wages do farm laborers get ?" I asked. 

"Three francs a day; how much do you pay in 
America ?" 

" A little over five ; but, aside from food, it vnW not 
purchase as much there as three will here." 

I hope it made the victim of imperial tyranny more 
contented with his lot to learn this. 

Arrived at Bligny, I was set down at a large wine- 
D2 



82 EueopeanVineyaeds. 

house where they were pressing white wine with a 
press of the old fashion, having a lever which is 
worked with a screw. They showed me into the 
" cave," as underground cellars are called, where the 
must was fermenting in barriques. All were over- 
flowing in froth and impurities at the bung-holes, 
it being the practice to insure this effect by com- 
pletely filling the casks instead of leaving a void, as 
we do. 

. The fruit was being crushed in a grape-mill. The 
juice running without pressure was to be set aside, 
and afterward mixed with a third or fourth part of 
the expressed must. The workmen at Bligny stoutly 
defended their old lever and screw against all new 
comers in the shape of patent presses, of which Bur- 
gundy is full. Its advantage seemed to lie in the 
spring of the wood, but this might easily be obtained 
in some less cumbersome way. In the course of the 
day I saw several presses of late invention better 
than any I had seen at home. 

Where I next stopped red wine was being made. 
They were stemming the fruit by rubbing it on 
small basket-work sieves or gratings, slightly bag- 
ging in the middle, resting on tubs into which the 
crushed berries fell. The work was quickly done. 
The vats I found to be much smaller than those 



Burgundy and the Cote d'oe. 83 

used in Medoc, and with no covers at all. A smell 
of vinegar came from the " chapeau," as the floating 
mass of skin and seeds which rises to the top is 
named, while swarms of little gnats, always a bad 
sign, hovered above it. The foreman told me that 
before putting the "rape" to press the top of the 
chapeau would be carefully pared off down to where 
it smelled as it should. As a precaution against ace- 
tous fermentation, they sometimes sift over the top of 
the chapeau a coating of plaster of Paris the third of 
an inch thick. I don't think, however, this would be 
done in making fine wines, but for an ordinary qual- 
ity should think it good. 

When I inquired how long the wine would remain 
in the vat, they told me two weeks ; but said that last 
year, which was as good for ripening as the present 
one was bad, only four or five days was found to be 
enough. 

One half the wine-makers in France stem the 
grapes before putting them to ferment, and the other 
half do not. In Burgundy it is not done except when 
the ripening has been imperfect. The reasons given 
for this by those Burgundians of whom I inquired 
did not appear to me entirely reasonable, but doubt- 
less the practice is founded in reason for all that. 
People who inherit wise customs born of the experi- 



84 European Vineyards. 

eiice of a remote ancestry do not always find them- 
selves in possession of the rationale of those cnstoms. 

Among the consequences of keeping the stems out 
of the vat would be a disease called " bitter," com- 
mon in French wines, and a flat taste; the others 
which were named I have forgotten. One person 
told me the corrective virtue of the stems consisted 
in their acidity, and another thought it lay in tie 
tannin. There is hardly any tannin in stems, and as 
for acidity, it might be better obtained from unripe 
grapes, as is done in Mddoc, where juice of the folle 
blanche is mixed with that of the malbec, to correct 
the flatness of the latter. 

Grape-mills are coming into fashion in Burgundy, 
but crushing with feet is still the general practice. 
It is usual to keep red wine above ground until March 
following the vintage, and after that in "caves," 
wliich are most commonly arched. There is no mys- 
tery in the fact that wine will keep above ground in 
the intense summer heat of Languedoc, while in the 
cold climate of Burgundy it must go below or spoil, 
for the wines of the south are remarkably fi*ee of 
acids. 

At the "Hospice," the property of an endowed 
hospital in Beaime, I found the arrangements excel- 
lent. The foreman, or one who seemed such, ex- 



Btjegundy and the Cote d'or. 85 

plained things like one who understood what he was 
talking about. The vats, which. are constructed hke 
those of Medoc, only lower and wider in proportion 
to their height, hold about a thousand gallons each. 
They usually have no covers, but sometimes a false 
top is adjusted below the level of the surface of the 
must to keep the chapeau always submerged. Often 
it is necessary to resort to artificial heat in aid of the 
fennentation. One way is to heat a portion of the 
must to the boiling point and then return it to the 
vat. A good temperature for the must to show when 
a thermometer is introduced is from 80° to 90° Fah- 
renheit. The experiment has been tried of adding 
a quantity of white wine, itself in an active state of 
fermentation, to serve as a kind of yeast. 

So long as things work well in the vats, nothing of 
the kind is needed. But there is another mode of 
rousing up the slackening process, and at the same 
time bringing the skins and seeds which have settled 
to the bottom into contact with the new-made alco- 
hol, so that the latter may combine well with the col- 
oring matter they contain. This consists in stirring 
up the whole mass from bottom to top. It is done 
twice during the process of fermentation. It needs 
a good one hour's hard work each time. It is done 
by men. It takes four men to do it well. They all 



86 EukopeanVineyards. 

strip naked — naked as Adam when he was good — ■ 
and then they go in — into the wine-vat — chin-deep 
they go in, and there, with feet and hands, fingers 
and toes, tm-n over, stir about, and mix the liquid 
that was getting clear with the pomace that was de- 
positing itself, and 

"Make the gruel thick and slab, 
And like a hell-broth boil and bubble." 

The nice, sweet Bordelais man only puts his foot 
in it, but tlie Burgundian goes the whole figure. 

It is done to give the wine a full body. 

They call it fermenting on the skin. 

He who explained all this to my astonished mind 
avowed it with the simple frankness of a Feejee 
cannibal who admits his fondness for what he calls 
" long pork." But the Feejee people are only hea- 
thens. 

In Lamartine's letter written to justify the Em- 
peror's expedition to Mexico, to set up an empire 
there which should hold the American Union in 
check — in which letter the author earned for him- 
self ''a good pension — rests his case on the sole 
ground that our peoples' manners are bad. It is 
true, our manners are bad, and maybe Napoleon 
did right to punish us for them as he did. Cer- 
tainly we can not dance as well as Frenchmen ; but 



Burgundy and the Cote d'or. 87 

oh, Lamartine, owner of many ^aneyards ! can worse 
dancing be done than in a vat of wine? or worse 
manners possibly be than afterward offering it to be 
drunk ? 

At the Hospice I first heard of this strange cus- 
tom, but repeated inquiry afterward confirmed the 
story. Nor is the custom confined to Burgundy 
alone, or to France alone. " Once," say they, " oiu* 
wines fermented on the skin only one or two days, 
and were light in color and taste ; but the consum- 
ers of late years demand a deeper color and richer 
taste, so in we go." 

Stirring up with poles they tried, but the warmth 
of the human body was wanting, and the result, 
they say, was not good. Besides, it was hard work. 

To prove, however, that no good reason exists for 
the practice, the Yicomte de Vergnette Lamotte tells 
us he succeeds perfectly in obtaining the deepest 
color, and even more alcohol than fermentation in 
open vats can give, without stirring up {fouler) of 
any sort, simply by using a large cask, with an open- 
ing twelve inches by eight at the place for the bung. 
In such a vessel he has allowed the must to work 
for twenty-two days — quite beyond any period that 
would be safe with an open vat in Burgundy. 

But does this amount to any thing more than par- 



88 European Vineyards. 

tially covering the common open-mouthed vat ? For 
the benefit, however, of any v^^ho may choose to try 
the Vicomte's plan, I will add that the lower door, 
or man-hole, through which the marc or " rape" must 
be withdravsTi after the wine has run off, is fitted on 
the outside, and held with two bolts. Closing from 
the inside, it could not be opened, owing to the press- 
ure of the marc against it. 

From 60° to 70° Fahrenheit is thought a favorable 
temperature for the fermenting-room. Doctor Gall, 
the German writer, thinks differently, and recom- 
mends to heat up gradually, by means of a stove, to 
about 80°, and keep it so. I think I have heard 
stoves were sometimes used in the fermenting-rooms 
in Champagne. 

A good proportion to observe in the form of open 
vats is one that will give the liquid the same depth 
as diameter. New casks are preferred in Burgundy 
as well as in Medoc. Pains are taken to keep them 
full, and they draw off frequently. 

I was disappointed to find, on leaving the Hos- 
pice, that I had so badly reckoned the time a visit to 
the celebrated " Clos Yougeot" had become impossi- 
ble. Those travelers in Europe who visit sites of 
ancient monasteries may observe that by a special 
providence, as it were, they are usually found in the 



BUKGUNDY AND THE CoTE d'oE. 89 

midst of the most fertile meadows, the fattest grain- 
fields, the richest fisheries, and most golden hill-sides. 
One of these last, " Clos Yougeot''^ by name, found 
itself included among the broad possessions of a 
house of holy men — having been moved there, doubt- 
less, by their meritorious faith — and for many long, 
tranquil centuries its nectarean flow refreshed the 
piety of an uninterrupted succession of jovial saints, 
and elevated their souls almost to the ecstasy of gods 
— heathen gods I mean. 

So long as those good men possessed the Clos You- 
geot, no impure admixture was allowed to taint its 
virginal soil, nor was any layering done, or other 
means practiced to force the yield of its old patri- 
archal vines, which were allowed to attain the incred- 
ible age of four or five hundred years, and the whole 
plantation of eighty acres required to give only about 
twelve hundred gallons yearly. 

But the French Revolution came, and Jacobins, 
Republicans, and sinners drove out the monks and 
usurped their domain. ISTow see what followed. 
The good wine soon ceased to flow for the impious 
dispossessors, on whose lips the grapes, playing the 
old trick of the apples of Sodom, turned to sour cider 
instead. Was it that a miracle of divine wrath had 
bliglited the soil and its fruit, to punish the sacrilege ? 



90 European Vineyards. 

No, only tliis : the secular owners had rooted up all 
the old growth, and planted new vines, which re- 
sponded to their avaricious exactions with a yearly 
yield measuring eighteen thousand gallons in quan- 
tity — but in quality y oh how inferior! It sells at 
present for about the price of fifth-class Medoc. Yet 
Clos Yougeot is the king of the Cote d'or. 

Within limits, a law of Kature ordains that fine 
things shall not come in gross bulk. Diamonds and 
emeralds are not found in massive beds, like granite 
and limestone. Sable and ermine furs do not grow 
on the backs of buffaloes, neither can a lioness, how- 
ever she may try, compete with a rabbit in the busi- 
ness of reproduction; and whoever hopes that a 
given vine-plant will bear one or two thousand gal- 
lons of choice wine to the acre, hopes against law — 
and hopes in vain. 150 gallons for the mean yield 
of the choicest and best ; 250 for the mean yield of 
the totality of M6doc, the Cote d'or, and the Rhine- 
gau ; and for what comes after them, 500, 1000, 2000, 
and even 3000, very much according to quality — 
quantity according to quality, and quality according 
to quantity — this is the law as applied to the subject 
in hand. 

The last portion of my drive that day was along 
the Cote d'or, and among vineyards of the delicate, 



BUEGUNDY AND THE CoTE d'oK. 91 

slender "pinot" variety. These, like those of the 
plain, were set without regularity, and so closely that 
it took 9000 of them to cover an acre. On the hills 
they prune to only one cane, and on that one allow 
from two to four eyes, and tliis notwithstanding the 
disposition of the pinot to carry its fi'uit on the upper 
buds. The souches were rather high, little pains be- 
ing taken to keep them low. But there is a reason 
for this : the fruit grown on a high souche is better, 
for the same reason, probably, that on old vines is 
better — namely, because the sap grows richer by 
mounting slowly through hard and twisted stocks of 
old wood. To leave, as we do in America, eight, 
ten, or even twelve eyes to a cane, would be thought 
murderous treatment in Burgundy, insuring a speedy 
end to the victims ; and, indeed, I don't know in 
what part of France they would not think so. It is 
to be seriously considered whether our plan of long 
canes, bent in circles or bows, is not in the end ruin- 
ous — has not, in fact, ruined many a vineyard. True, 
M. Guyot, of whose system so much has lately been 
said in France, claims to have obtained great results 
by leaving nine or ten buds on one cane, which cane 
he extends along and close to the ground, and ties, 
at the end, to a peg. But among the many objec- 
tions brought against it is this, that, despite the free 



92 European Vineyards. 

use of manure which he advises, the vines jield poor 
fruit, and soon wear out. And, apropos to our own 
mode of bow-training, one of his oj)ponents cites a 
case where a vineyard was ruined by that very meth- 
od, which, he declares, is nothing else than Guyot's, 
only the cane is bent in one case, and kept horizontal 
in the other, the effect on the circulation being in 
both very much the same. Leaving on a given 
souche three or four canes, each of them trimmed to 
two or three eyes, is not considered by any means 
bad practice with prolific varieties, on rich ground ; 
yet to select a single cane, and leave on it as many 
as eight eyes, would be. The reason is, eyes remote 
from the souche will generally bear more than those 
near it. The habits of plants differ in this respect. 
Some bear more fully on the lower eyes, and with 
them long pruning would of course be safer. 

The pinots on the poverty-stricken flanks of the 
Cote d'or hardly looked able to yield an average of 
150 gallons to the acre, which is, I think, the mean 
product of the more celebrated vineyards there, 
though, as in Medoc, 250 is the general average of 
the whole hill. The Cote has a varied soil and sub-* 
soil. On low hills at the base, resting on alluvion, and 
formed into elevations by the washing out of ravines 
and other accidental depressions, the composition is 



Burgundy and the Cote d'or. 93 

clayey, biit with large portions of lime and iron. On 
friable magnesian limestone another soil is formed, 
unmistakably reddened with a large admixtm^e of 
iron. The harder oolitic ledges, outcropping along 
the hill and sustaining a broad bench of gentle 
slope, give a surface soil con taming iron and silex 
in large quantities. Another kind has a subsoil of 
limey marl. All of these yield the very highest 
qualities of wine. Here is an analysis of two kinds 
of soil and subsoil as made by a distinguished chem- 
ist: 



[ 17.20 



Large and small gravel of limey n ature 30.10 29.15 

Carbonate of lime 12.95 

Carbonate of magnesia 3.98 

Oxide of iron ". 12.72 10.50 

Almnina 5.93 7.17 

Silica 28.93 32.98 

Organic substances 5.39 3.00 

100.00 100.00 
While the corresponding subsoils showed 

Carbonate of lime 88.00 78.00 

Argillaceous substances 12.00 22.00 

100.00 100.00 

It will be noticed that one of these analyses shows 
about thirteen per cent, of iron, and the other be- 
tween ten and eleven. The Lafitte soil in M^doc 
contained, it will be remembered, between eight and 



94 EiJKOPEAN Vineyards. 

nine per cent. Perhaps we have yet to learn how 
important to the production of fine qualities of wine 
is the presence of iron. 

On estates growing fine wines, they apply manure 
only when necessary to save the life of the vines ; but 
they periodically haul from the bottom of the hill 
and restore to the soil 'its loss from washing, and the 
effect of this is said to be remarkable. 

Though the soil of the hill seemed to be of an im- 
permeable natm'e, I could not learn that the ground 
was ever dug up very deeply. To prepare it for 
planting, they dig, along the slope and following the 
course of the hill, trenches fourteen inches deep and 
twelve inches wide. Crosswise on the bottom of a 
trench the rooted plant is laid, with its top resting 
for support against one of the sides. It is covered 
with six inches of earth well pressed down. The top 
is made to rise above the soil to the same height as 
in the nursery. At the end of the winter, or, if the 
planting is in spring, then in a fortnight after plant- 
ing, the side of the trench against which the plant 
leaned is pared away, so that the bank which served 
in winter to shelter from the cold shall not any lon- 
ger exclude the sunshine. 

And this seems to be the only preparation the soil 
receives for a new plantation. I had a vineyard 



BUKGUNDY AND THE CoTE d'oK. 95 

once planted in this way by a Burgundian, and the 
vines took root uncommonly well, forcing their way 
downward and sidewise into the tough clay subsoil 
far deeper than they could have done if planted in 
the common mode on ground trenched ever so deep. 
The trenches were kept free of weeds, and only 
gradually filled up. They were not entirely filled 
until the end of two years, or maybe three. 

This is not very expensive, costing per acre, by 
contract, 100 francs, which represent thirty -three 
and a third days' work if the summer wages of three 
francs are allowed ; but, as it is probably done at a 
time when wages are lower, we may call the labor- 
cost fifty days. The cost of manure and of the 
plants or cuttings are omitted. 

The outlay of labor for cultivation is equally mod- 
erate — surprisingly so if we consider that 5000 or 
9000 staked A^nes, standing in confounded confu- 
sion, are to be hoed by hand thrice in a season. 

It is usually done by contract, for sixty dollars the 
hectare, or about twenty-fom' dollars per acre, repre- 
senting forty days' labor. This covers all the work 
but harvesting, and includes laying down some 560 
"j^ro-y^ws," as they are called, which is the average 
yearly number of vines to be layered. 

Why is this done ? 



96 ■ European Vineyards. 

To reinvigorate sickly plants or replace dead ones. 

But why do as many as eleven per cent, get sick 
or die every year ? 

Because, where they are crowded together at the 
rate of 5000 or 9000 to the acre, they are suffocated 
and starved. 

But why are they set so closely as to suffocate and 
starve each other ? 

In order to improve the quality and hasten the 
ripening of the grapes — wood and foliage being sac- 
rificed to product. 

I will recur to this system of "j)rovignage^^ when 
I come to the vine-culture of Champagne, and de- 
scribe how it is practiced. It does not necessarily 
exclude treUis-training or cultivating with a plow. 

Burgundy has as yet known but little of the oidi- 
um ; the Cote d'or has absolutely escaped. Cham- 
pagne is almost equally fortunate. Some have said 
the climates of those districts were too cold for the 
pestilent parasite to live there, but I found it in the 
Rhine vineyards, and it thrives in those of the Bor- 
delais districts, quite as cold, I think, as the others. 

It is known that young vines seldom have the dis- 
ease. Now the system of '■'■ jpromgnag^'' common to 
both Burgundy and Champagne rejuvenates the 
plants and keeps them always young, and on that 



Burgundy and the Cote d'oe. 97 

very account has been objected to as tending to de- 
teriorate the quality of tlie crop, since good wine re- 
quires old vines to produce it. 

Thus it may be that provignage keeps off the o'idi- 
um by keeping the vines always in a state of in- 
fancy. 

I well remember a vine-dresser from Champagne, 
who, having pm'chased a deca}^d and rot-ravaged 
hill-side of Catawbas, near Cincinnati, about the year 
1856, layered them all, and for years afterward con- 
tinued to gather good crops, while all aroimd him 
were being ruined by the scourge. 

It is in view of the possibility that layering may 
be found a sufficient remedy for oidium, as well as a 
means of restoring vines made sickly by its repeated 
attacks, that I have given the cost of cultivating by 
hand on the Burgundy plan. 

I have said that in former times the Burgundians 
let the must ferment on the skins but one or two 
days, which gave only a light tint to the wine. They 
do the same, I understand, in Missouri, and the re- 
sult is a white wine, properly so called, pinkish in 
tint, but not, for that reason, correctly termed red. I 
am sorry to learn that the Germans of Herman, who 
first taught me the value oi the Norton's Virginia 
Seedling, and from whom we obtained roots to plant 

E 



98 EuropeanYineyakds. 

the two first Norton vineyards in the Ohio Yalley, 
should thus abuse its noble fruit. Mr. Hussnaan, 
in his book lately published, tells us they do it be- 
cause a complete fermentation would render the wine 
too astringent. If this be so in his state, we must 
deny his claim to the plant, as a Missourian by adop- 
tion, based on the assumption that it succeeds better 
there than with us of this valley, for we have made 
a veritable fom*teen-day red wine from it that none 
can say has any harsh quality, and which was re- 
ceived with respect by good tasters in France, and 
spoken of with praise in their first journal of viti- 
culture. 

Red wine and white differ materially, and in essen- 
tial respects. 

The Yicount de Vergnette Lamotte says, " White 
wines of the same year and of similar growth ex- 
hibit from the beginning a perfect identity; red 
wines, under analogous circumstances, often show 
very distinctly-marked differences. 

"Wliite wines, and wines from red grapes, but 
which have not fermented on the sldn, are not sub- 
ject to the same disease as true red wines, or yellow 
wines made of white grapes fermented on the skin. 

" White wines are richer in alcohol and in acid 
salts than red wines of analagous growths. These 



Burgundy and the Cote d'oe. 99 

last, on the other hand, contain a stronger proportion 
of tannin and extractive matter/' 

Doctor Gnyot, at the same time physician, wine- 
grower, and author, says : 

"White wines are generally diffusive stimulants 
of the nervous system ; if they are light, they act rap- 
idly on the organization, whereof they exalt all the 
functions. It seems they escape just as rapidly by 
the excreting organs of the skin and mucous surface, 
especially by the urinary ways ; their action is, then, 
of short duration. 

" On the contrary, red wines are tonic, and contin- 
uing stimulants of the nerves, the muscles, and di- 
gestive functions ; their organic action, being slower, 
continues longer ; they do not increase the perspira- 
tion nf)r the excretions, and their general action is 
astringent, persistent, and concentrated." 

Doctor Ludwig Gall, physician and chemist, says : 

" The greater amount of tannin in red wines fer- 
mented together with stalks, skins, and seeds, or even 
skins and seeds alone, seems to be the reason why 
they are generally preferred as a common beverage 
in Southern wine-growing countries to the white 
wines containing a greater amount of tartar. 

"The effect of the high temperature of those coun- 
tries in relaxing the muscles would become greater 



100 European Yinetakds. 

by the frequent use of a beverage containing much 
tartar and of a laxative character, while tannin tends 
to produce a greater contraction of the muscular sys- 
tem than any other substance in daily use. 

"The Northern man, on the contrary, whose ten- 
sion of muscles is naturally much greater, requires in 
his drink something that quickens his blood and pro- 
motes its circulation, rather than an astringent ; and 
this is done by the alcohol in its diluted state, such 
as is found in good wines." 

For the purposes of this last paragraph, ninety 
Americans in a hundred are of Southern constitu- 
tion, and need a tonic rather than a stimulant. 

A Parisian physician, prescribing for a delicate 
American patient, will nine times in ten order red 
wine. " I am cured of my dyspepsy," said one of 
these to me. " Did the red wine do it ?" I asked. 
" No ; I think it is the variety of courses at the table 
d'hote. I think I shall give up the vsdne, being op- 
posed to it on principle." Poor, inconsequential tee- 
totaler ! He could believe in the digestibility of soup, 
salmon, radishes, fried beans, cutlets, salad and chick- 
en, cauhflower fricassee, salmi, blanquette, cheese, 
custard, pudding, tarts, syllabubs, raisins and almonds, 
cucumbers and melons, all jumbled into one meal, 
rather than in so simple a thing as red wine. 



Burgundy and the Cote d'ok. 101 

That self -devoted apostle and missionary, Professor 
Babrius, of Bordeaux, discoursing in 18-10 on the in- 
fluence of wine on civilization, speaks of the effect of 
French wines (red, of course) on the French people 
thus : " So long as wine was honored by all classes, 
the French people remained, in virtue of then* bril- 
liant qualities, the first of modern peoj)les. Courage, 
loyal and generous, gayety and \'ivacity of mind, pat- 
riotism, eloquence, an exquisite sentiment of personal 
dignity joined to an excessive politeness, an irresist- 
ible longing for a sweet sociability, were the princi^ 
pal traits of their character. When coffee, tea, and 
tobacco successively took their place among our hab- 
itudes, each of these agents, more or less deleterious, 
impressed a sensible alteration on this beautiful as- 
semblage of distinguished traits." 

And there was a good deal of ground for this 
self-laudation. The deep-thinking Babrius goes on 
to say : 

" Wliat distinguishes wine from all other drinks is 
its general action on the bodily economy. In mod- 
erate quantities it increases the energy of all the fac- 
ulties. The heart, the brain, the organs of secretion, 
the muscular system, each acquire by its use a sensi- 
ble augmentation of vitality. 

" Wine acts generously on all our functions, f orti- 



102 European Vineyards. 

fying and exciting them in harmony with each oth- 
er, while other hqiiors act like those medicaments 
which expend their force on a single organ merely. 
Far from increasing the harmony of the system, their 
action can not fail to trouble it. 

" Coffee, like wine, excites the vitality, but it stim- 
ulates only those portions of the brain which are the 
seat of the intellect, properly so called, and the 
speech. Its special property is to cause a flow of 
language, clear, lively, and facile, that is never troub- 
led by the emotions of a warm conviction. Under 
the action of coffee the heart remains perfectly calm. 
It is the drinkers of coffee who have said you must 
not feel a sentiment if you would express it well. 
The decoction of coffee is the liquor of men of the 
world ; it is the provocative to counterfeits of the 
truth, to cold arid piercing sallies of wit, to specioiis 
argumentation — in fact, to all which makes up the 
charm of the elegant and blase world of the saloons. 

" Tea addresses itself directly neither to the heart 
nor the head. Its stimulation goes to the glands of 
the abdomen. The liver and reins respond strongly 
to its action. This explains why tea facihtates the 
digestion of indolent stomachs, and why its drinkers 
are inclined to moods of melancholy. They are cold, 
and talk little. Tea impresses on individuals and 



Burgundy and the Cote d'or. 103 

on nations which use it a slight tinge of hypochon- 
dria." 

But as tea and coffee still hold only a subordinate 
place on the tables of the French, Babrius thinks 
that, though they may alter and distort French civil- 
ization, and turn it aside from its true end, it will not 
perish from their influence. What he fears will en- 
ervate, confuse, corrupt, and finally abolish us all, is 
tobacco. 

The American people is in want of a drink. A 
nation has transplanted itself, but not its vines, from 
one hemisphere to another, and is thirsty. It is as 
important what we drink should be adapted to our 
climate, our temperament and institutions, as it is we 
should hold correct opinions on this, that, and the 
other subject. In fine, the liquor to mix daily m 
our blood, to act on our nerves, nourish our tissues, 
and qualify the vitahty of every part of us, will con- 
trol our destiny as much, at least, as w^hat we learn 
in schools, read in newspapers, or hear from pulpits. 

What shall we drink ? 

It will not answer in these days, with the deplorable 
results we have before us of the e^^ls of water-drink- 
ing on one hand, and the evils of spirit-drinking on 
the other, to point to the springs and brooks, rivers 
and lakes, saying, " Share with the frogs and fishes, 



104 European Vineyaeds. 

and four-footed beasts, the abundant wasliings of the 
earth's surface ; there is enough for all." 

We live in a dry climate, and under moral condi- 
tions exciting and exhausting to body, brain, and 
nerve. That climate and those conditions have al- 
ready, in the absence of any proper corrective, cre- 
ated a national temperament that responds with ex- 
cessive sensibility to every exciting cause. The pale, 
bony woman, who paralyzes her insides with unstint- 
ed draughts of liquid ice, and the restless, nervous 
man who consumes his with draughts equally un- 
stinted of liquid fire, are types alike of our wretched 
condition as a people. Dilution will not save us. 
Says my scientific friend. Doctor , " A low dew- 
point (dry air) and Republican institutions are incon- 
sistent with the long duration of our race." 

Now we don't want to pull down Republican in- 
stitutions, nor can we raise up the too low dew-point. 
We must raise red wine, then ; and this can be done, 
I will endeavor to prove, as easily and cheaply as in 
Burgundy, where it is to be had of good quality for 
four, five, and six cents a bottle. 

Taken in the quantity of a quart daily for every 
adult, and a pint daily for each child, we may expect 
the following effects : It will slightly stupefy, and 
thereby soothe and quiet ; gently elevate, and there- 



Burgundy and the Cote d'or. 105 

by promote gayety, and cliase anxiety and care; 
warm the heart, and at the same time stimulate the 
flow of ideas, whence will come sociability, and with 
sociability, politeness and toleration, elegance and 
good taste. It will prevent and cure dyspepsy, the 
most American and the least French of all diseases 
that scourge the world — in fine, by virtue of its 
tonic and stimulating properties, touch every weak- 
ness for which tonics and stimulants are prescribed 
— not, however, as a medicine, to lose its power with 
use, or be followed by reaction, but as a continuing 
condition — a habitual alimentation, like pure air, 
nourishing food, exercise, and proper clothing. 
E2 



106 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTER YIII. 



EPEKNAY. 



T TTJRMID aside from my intended visit to Cham- 
pagne on learning vintage was ended in that 
province, and vrent on to Paris. Two months later 
I ran over to Epernay, one of the chief seats of the 
commerce in sparkling wines, and presented myself 
to my old Correspondent, M. Girbal, who received me* 
like a brother, and very soon put me in the way of 
seeing all worth seeing in the neighborhood. There 
are two cities at Epernay — one above ground, of 
buildings two and three stories high, and another 
under ground, of cellars two and three stories deep. 
This last, however, is not, like the Catacombs be- 
neath Paris, a city of the dead, a receptacle of skulls 
and cross-bones, but a store-house of well-corked 
and wired bottles, full of pent-up hfe and sparkle, 
laughter and noise. The caves I visited, and wliich 
took the whole day to explore, were those of Moet 
and Chandon, Piper and Co., Ruinart, and Roussillon. 
The first of these I f omid the most extensive, and the 



Epeenay. 107 

last the most interesting; for these M. Roussillon him- 
self showed me through, and volmitarily gave such 
full and frank explanations as stripped of nearly all 
,its mystery an art whose few professors in America 
seem to keep it as close a secret as if it were alchemy. 

Yery little masonry is seen in the cellars of Cham- 
pagne. Except an occasional patch of brick or stone 
to fill up a fault in the natural formation, all was 
hewn out of the solid chalk. Easily cut as this is, 
it is nevertheless abundantly strong, and durable as 
rock, while its chemical quality seems to render the 
atmosphere of its chambers singularly pure and dr}'-. 
A two-story cellar is common, and some are even 
three deep. Mad. Pommery, of Rheims, is making 
one, I am told, of which the floor of the ujpper story 
will be eighty feet below the surface of the ground. 
"Were it not for the ease with which Champagne bot- 
tlers can burrow in the earth, their wine could not be 
afforded so cheap as it is. To construct of stone or 
brick caves as vast as those, for instance, of Moot and 
Chandon, would require so great a fortune that upon 
the interest of it both Moet and Chandon might live 
like princes. 

The wine grown in Champagne is a natural spark- 
ler. With Catawba, Burgundy, Hock, and all other 
sparkling wines known to commerce, the fermenta- 



108 European Vineyards. 

tion which ensues immediately on the fii'st botthng 
having done its work in developing the gas and de- 
positing a sedinient subsides, and is never heard from 
again ; but with true Champagne new fermentation^ 
repeatedly occur, each one depositing its sediment, to 
be got rid of by a fresh tabhng and shaking. For 
instance, M. Roussillon showed me a stack of fine Still 
Sillery bottled, not to sparkle, but to keep quiet, and 
therefore without any addition of sugar, yet it had 
fretted and fumed within the glass during six or seven 
years before it would be Still Sillery. Two and often 
three disgorgings and recorkings are needed before it 
is safe to send out for sale. By reason of this foamy 
quality it is that makers of Sparkling in other parts 
of France often use a certain portion of wine grown 
in Champagne to mix with that of their own districts. 
I am inclined to think, from my experiments with it, 
that the Scuppernong, produced in North Carohna, is 
as good a natural sparkler as we need. 

Usually at least three qualitias, growths of differ- 
ent places in the province, are mixed together, which 
is done toward the end of December following vint- 
age ; but the finer kinds are never mixed. And my 
entertainer, M. Girbal, out of consideration for his 
health, puts up what he needs for table use wholly 
unmixed, although not using, he said, raw wine of 



E PERN AY. 109 

very high quality. I can say for it, however, that it 
was good, and had a fresh and free taste, more hke 
Sparkling Catawba than any Champagne I had di'unk. 

They make four kinds of Sparkling — high spark- 
Hng, common sparkling, half sparkling, or crhnaiit, 
and tisane. The half sparkling is best, and the tisane 
the most inferior. But better than all, and the true 
type of Champagne, is that which does not sparkle at 
all, being entirely free of sugar or other admixture, 
and bottled when new merely in order that while ri- 
pening it may keep its fresh and delicate flavor. And 
this is the original of bottled Champagne. The plan 
of forcing a sparkling fermentation only gradually 
grew out of the ancient practice, which did not aim 
at producing foam and noise, but only at preserving 
purity, delicacy, and grape-blossom bouquet, that they 
might become imited to maturity and fineness, like a 
wedding of youth, innocence, and beauty with expe- 
rience and wisdom. Of such is Still Sillery, and I 
can testify that some M. Koussillon gave me was del- 
icacy itself and purity itself. 

For Sparkling wine an early vintage is considered 
important. The fruit is put to press soon as may be 
after being gathered, with no crushing whatever, and 
in as solid a condition as the necessary handhng and 
transportation will permit. The juice reposes in large 



110 European Vineyards. 

casks or vats from twelve to twenty-four hours, to 
deposit its coarse lees, after which it goes into new 
casks of moderate size. These thej prepare first 
with a washing of hot water, and then, after drying 
them, with a fumigation of burning sulphur, or, what 
I prefer, of burning brandy, flung into the cask in the 
proportion of a gill to every barfel of capacity, and 
hghted with a wisj) of paper. Late in December the 
mixing takes place, which is made the subject of 
much deep study and discussion — this sort being put 
in for sparkle, this for body, this for bouquet, this to 
prickle the tongue, and this for quantity. After the 
mixing comes the clarifying, performed by stirring 
in isinglass dissolved in older wine. Russian isin- 
glass is the best. Then comes a medication with nut- 
gall and alum in no small doses {dose is the French 
word for all the doctoring wme receives). Toward 
the end of March or early in April a second dra wing- 
off takes place, accompanied with filtering through a 
sieve having two bottoms, one of hair and the other 
of silk. Soon afterward the bottling, which must be 
accomphshed before the first of September, may 
begin. 

A body of wine, to the quantity usually of many 
thousand gallons, is brought together in one or more 
large casks. About two thirds of the whole is new. 



E P E K N A Y. Ill 

and one third old. At this stage the decomposition 
of the sugar contained in the must ought to have ex- 
hausted three fourths of it. Of the natural sugar 
thus remaining, and what is afterward to be added 
in the form of rock-candy, the wine shoidd contain, 
when it goes into bottle, the quantity of 1 pounds to 
every 225 bottles. To ascertain the true proportion 
to add, the following is an approved method : 

Take fifteen pints of the wine, and slowly and care- 
fully boil it down to two pints and a half. Twenty- 
four hom's afterward test it with the gluco-cenomUre, 
as they call the wine-scale. If 5° below zero of the 
scale is indicated, it will not sparkle even at fi'om 68° 
to 77° of Fahrenheit. In such case add, in the way 
hereafter described, 7 pounds of white rock-candy for 
every 225 bottles. Should the wine show 6° on the 
scale, then add, in the same way, 6 pounds of candy ; 
if it shows 7°, add 5 pounds ; if 8°, then 4 pounds ; if 
9°, 3 pounds ; if 10°, only 2 pounds are needed ; 1 
pound for 11°, and for 12° nothing at aU. 

A simpler plan was devised by a peddler of wine- 
scales : Float the scale in a quart of the wine, and if 
it falls below zero, add sugar, carefully measured and 
mixed, mitil you bring it up to zero. This gives the 
proportion needed. 

The sirup, called " liquem'," is composed as follows : 



112 European Vineyards. 

For a sixty-gallon cask of sirup, take 300 pounds of 
white rock-candy, as pm-e as can be had, and 2^ gal- 
lons of fine Cognac brandy, and fill up with wine 
more than a year old. Every day, for twenty days, 
joU the cask well, so as to dissolve the candy ; then 
filter and bottle, to keep till needed for use. The 
sirup is mixed with the wine eight days before the 
latter is bottled. 

Once got into bottles, and corked and twined, the 
■ wine is allowed to remain on the ground floor, where 
the temperature should be from 68° to 77° Fahren- 
heit imtil the fermentation has got headway enough 
to break the glass merrily, when it is removed to an 
arched cellar, where the temperature ought to be 
fi'om 50° to 52° Fahrenheit, there to remain till next 
year, when it is brought up and stored in an inter- 
mediate cellar, whence again, before going into mar- 
ket, it must be removed to a store-room above ground, 
to become tempered to the exposures it is to undergo. 

The bottle fermentation, in consuming the sugar, 
develops carbonic acid gas and alcohol, and deposits 
a sediment. To get rid of this last, the bottles are 
placed in racks, in which are holes to receive the neck 
and support the shoulder, and so formed as to allow 
them to take any position, from one nearly horizontal 
to one nearly perpendicular. Every day they are 



E PERN AY. 113 

sliaken with a twisting movement, designed to gently 
detach the crust of sediment without troiibHng the 
liquid ; and at every shaking are changed in position, 
till from one nearly horizontal they are gradually 
brought to one nearly upright, bottom upward. By 
this time the sediment is entirely gone from the side, 
and rests against the cork. This operation requires 
from fifteen to twenty-one days, and can usually be 
performed at any time after February of the first 
year. 

When it becomes necessary to prepare the wine 
for market, the operation of degorgement takes place. 
Holding the bottle carefully, the workman, with an 
instrument half hook, half knife, cuts the lacing ; the 
cork, soauetimes coaxed a little with the thiunb, flies 
out, followed by a gush of sediment and froth. "Wine 
would flow but that the neck is raised in the nick of 
time. Then, tapping the butt lightly with his hook, 
he starts a further outpourifig of froth, and, as it 
comes, rubs with a finger the inside of the neck, to 
help the foam wash away all adhering sediment — 
and the problem is solved, that might liave puzzled a 
conjuror, of how to remove the sediment from under- 
neath the wine without disturbing it. 

Then, if the wine is deemed fit to market, comes 
the last dosing of sirup, intended to give the proper 



114 European Vineyards. 

taste. If there is notliing wrong about the wine, 
nothing to be helped, nothing to be masked, the 
simp I have described is all that is needed for the 
last, as well as first sweetening. But a good deal 
more is usually added, and it is the composition of 
this last dose which is the secret and mystery of 
Champagne. Here is one recipe for wine intended 
for the English market : 

Port wine. Cream of tartar, 

Cognac spirit. Sugar, 

Cognac brandy, Kirsch, 

Brown Cognac, Kaspberry extract, 

Elder-berry juice, Madeira wine. 

The sirup having been "Carefully dosed in even 
quantity to every bottle, new and better corks are 
driven in and wired down, the bottles are moved or 
waved about in a way that mixes well the contents, 
but can not be called shaking, and in a few weeks, 
more or less, may be sent off. 

I was more than ever convinced, by what I saw at 
Epernay, that if we would make Sparkling vrine in 
America, we must first make the makers of it, and 
not import them ready-made from abroad. What 
chef de cave from Rheims or Epernay, for instance, 
to whom you might give 1000 gallons of Catawba to 
bottle, would not begin by preparing it with nut-gall. 



E PERN AY. 115 

tannin, and alum, to correct a disease called graisse, 
which I never yet knew the Catawba or any other of 
our wines to have, and which, in consequence of its 
excess of tartar, I am sm-e it is impossible for it to 
have. 

If he were very sapient, he would also undertake 
to mingle different kinds, a thing quite unnecessary, 
and, as regards effect on the health, more or less per- 
nicious, though in time we shall probably come to it. 
He would be pretty certain to add to the new wine 
a certain proportion of old, for he would not know 
that wine ripens here faster than in France, hence 
that no such mixture is either necessary or proper. 
(For my part, I consider it highly injurious, where 
Catawba is the wine, and would be slow to believe it 
good for any.) 

Then he would have his secret recipe for the sweet- 
ening sirups, which he would as carefully conceal 
from his employer as if it were actually the philoso- 
pher's stone ; but which, could he be induced to re- 
veal it, would prove to be something like that I have 
just given, and which, especially designed for John 
Bull's palate, sweetens liis posset with Port, Madeira, 
and Cognac, Cognac, Cognac, etc., whereas, in fact and 
in truth, so far as relates to bottling wine grown in 
the Ohio Yalley, every drop of spirit added is a posi- 



116 Etjeopean Vineyards. 

tive injury, and, except perhaps what little may be 
required to preserve the sirup untD. needed for use, 
has, after full trial, been abandoned. 

By discarding these dosings and mixings, we may 
thus get rid of the most troublesome and complicated 
part of the business ; very httle seems to remain that 
we may not leani for ourselves. In the beginning 
we shall T3lunder, it is true ; but a Champagne or 
Hochheim professor would blunder worse. We shall 
have to learn ; they would have to unlearn as well. 

One great obstacle in our way is the difficulty of 
obtaining good, reliable bottles and corks. 

The reason why 1 have not gone more fully into 
details is that the Sparkling wine business is so haz- 
ardous, and the capital that must be hazarded is so 
large, I shrink from the responsibility of helping any 
one to embark in it. Besides, any who might under- 
take it would find it quite as easy to obtain from 
abroad all the best treatises on the subject, both Ger- 
man and French, as to buy and import reliable bot- 
tles and corks, and the latest and best machines. I 
have only been trying to clear away, for the benefit 
of begimiers, some of the cobwebs of mystery woven 
in the cellars of Champagne, and which my visit 
there helped me to see were only cobwebs. 

The Americans love pop, foam, and noise, and will 



E PERN AY. 117 

always consnine largely of gaseous drinks. They have 
in the Catawba a wine capable of great things. Let 
but the product be large enough to allow the bottler 
to select only the choicest specimens, and of the best 
vintages, and those who follow the business properly, 
and especially those who secure good corks, need fear 
no competition from any thing likely to he sent over 
here, however it might be if the comparison were 
with those princely qualities found only on the great 
tables of Europe. There are those who thinli the day 
of the Catawba has gone by, but I am not one of 
them. Its wine has qualities which peculiarly fit it 
to combine with sugar, either in the bottle or the 
" cobbler." The last, made of new and sufficiently 
acid wine, such as is easily found in the West, but 
seldom or never in the East, is a summer drink of 
unsurpassed excellence. Certainly there is nothing 
in Europe to match it. Many an American traveler 
would be glad if there were, and be glad, too, if he 
could exchange the best grapes of foreign fruit-mar- 
kets for the clusters he loved at home. In its place I 
will consider the question whether there is danger of 
this valuable variety being destroyed by the oidium. 

We will visit Champagne again when the leaves 
are green on the vines, and bestow our time, not on 
the dark, deep cellars, but on prettier objects above 
and outside of them. 



118 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

PARIS AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 

A GREAT Exhibition was that of Paris in 1867 
•^•^ — grand and magnificent as a battle — and a 
battle indeed it was, wherein not two, nor three, but 
all the nations of the round world met in the con- 
test, and mingled in the disj)lay 

"Their rival scarfs of rich embroidery." 

"Worthy was it to be remembered by all who bore 
part in it, as a soldier remembers he was present and 
fit for duty when some proud day of war was won. 

In the three months and a half during which I 
was an almost daily attendant in the Champ de 
Mars, I saw a good deal of liquor consumed. Every 
country had its restaurant, where the drinks native 
to its soil were drunk by the natives of others — a 
pleasanter way, that, of tasting the soils of distant 
lands by sample, as it were, than of acquiring a 
knowledge of them by dint of locomotion. 

The American restaurant dispensed soda-water 



Paris and the Gkeat Exhibition. 119 

and iced drinks — exclusively American I believe 
they all are — which not only astonished, but delight- 
ed multitudes, who took the first glass from curiosi- 
ty, but the second from appreciation. An Enghsh- 
man who had carried either his curiosity or appreci- 
ation as far as the tenth glass, said, "Your people 
ought to excel in compounding drinks, for, taken by 
themselves, yom* liquors are infamous." " Yes," I 
answered, " necessity was probably the mother of 
their invention, Nature having thus far denied to 
us those more natural drinks with which other peo- 
ple are blessed, we have been forced to imitate them 
with what materials were at hand. ' Cobblers,' ' ju- 
leps,' and ' cocktails,' ' stone fences,' ' hail-storms,' and 
' smiles,' are but so many different kinds of Ameri- 
can wines. There is spirits for strength, sugar for 
taste, lemon-peel or mint for bouquet, and powder of 
ice for quantity." 

And why are they not wines ? and why should we 
take the trouble to grow wines when the bar-keeper 
can so easily and deftly make them for us ? Is tan- 
nin wanted? nut-gall is cheap; or, Is color desired? 
elder-berries and logwood are still cheaper. If the 
disciples of Chaptal are right, who say their imita- 
tions effected by fermenting quantities of sugared 
water on a few grape-skins and seeds, or mixed with 



120 European Yineyaeds. 

a certain portion of true grape-juice, are really wines, 
then those who bring together in the tumbler spirits, 
sugar, water, and an aromatic, without going through 
any manoeuvres at all of viticulture or vinification, 
are likewise wine-makers, and we, God bless us ! are 
a nation of wine-drinkers. 

But are these imitations really wines to all chem- 
ical intents and purposes ? or, if they be, are they 
likewise so to all intents and purposes, and all effects 
and consequences as well ? Chaptal, who was min- 
ister of the interior under Napoleon the First, and 
was, moreover, a great chemist, did not push his 
theory farther, I think, than to recommend additions 
of water and sugar to the must of imperfectly ri- 
pened fruit, and that to no greater extent than would 
make three barrels out of two. But Doctor Ludwig 
Gall, of Germany, whose recipes for falsification our 
government has taken pains to promulgate, through 
the Patent Ofiice Report of 1860, goes farther, and 
obtains a double product. His theories seem to be 
well reasoned out, and his results have become so ac- 
ceptable in Germany that, as he informs us, falsifi- 
cation has been for many years in general practice 
there. These theories, having again been made 
known and advocated in the lately published work 
of Mr. G. Hussman, of Missouri, who, as disciples 



Paris and the Great Exhibition. 121 

are apt to do, goes f artlier than his master, the time 
has come for accepting or refuting them. 

Gall finds the useful element of wine to be diluted 
alcohol (and in warm countries tannin also), and its 
attractive elements to be bouquet matter and flavor- 
ing matter derivable from grape acids ; and he makes 
little or no account of any thing else. 

In fully ripened grapes he finds from 28 to 30 per 
cent, of sugar, which is just enough to give the right 
proportion of alcohol — about G^ thousandths of 
acids, which is just enough to give the right propor- 
tion of flavor, and just enough bouquet matter to 
give the right proportion of aroma. 

In unripe grapes he finds too much acid, too little 
sugar, and either too little bouquet matter, or none 
at all. 

To make a good middling wine equal in all things 
except bouquet to any obtainable from fully ripe 
grapes, he dilutes the must with water till the -acid 
is reduced to the true proportion of 6|- thousandths, 
and then adds sugar until the whole quantity of 
^ugar is increased to the true proportion of 28 or 30 
per cent. Bouquet he does not attempt to supply. 

Making the quantity of acids found in his must 
his base', and having by tests ascertained what that 
quantity is, he is no more at a loss for his other in- 

F 



122 EuEOPEAN Vineyards. 

gredients than Dr. Sangrado was, who cured every 
thing with warm water and the lancet: he brings 
both pump and sugar-hogshead into requisition, and 
makes sm*e of full a thousand pounds of wine for 
every 6^ pounds of acid, which is often twice as 
nuich as his grapes could have made in the natural 
way, thus producing more wine in a bad year than 
in a good one. Such a vine-dresser needs little of 
tlie smiles of god Bacchus — who was the original 
Sol, I think — but should rather pray to him for 
clouds and rain, that quantity may be abundant 
and quality middling. And, could he find a grape 
that would never ripen at all, his fortune would be 
assured. I don't know why the grape acids might 
not be manufactured from some cheap substance, 
as the grape-sugar Gall uses is from potatoes; and 
then the vine and its fruit might be dispensed with 
altogether, and science triumph ! 

Gall goes further. Finding a good deal of acid 
substance remaining in the pomace after pressing, he 
obtains all of it he can by soaking in water, estab- 
lishes the true proportion of 6|- thousandths or less, 
fills in sugar to the quantity of 16 per cent., fer- 
ments, then adds of spirits obtained J^rom grape- 
sugar, that was once potato starch, eight per cent., 
and has a wine as good as the other, and even a bet- 



Paris and the Great Exhibition. 123 

ter, if the grapes were ripe, for the pomace affords 
not merely acid, but bouquet as welL 

In the larger part of the American vine districts 
grapes usually ripen too well to furnish the excuse, 
and, at the same time, the foundation that Gall and 
his friends in Germany enjoy, namely, excess of 
acids. So his disciple here, Mr, Hussman, finds a 
new foundation in the excess of bouquet matter with 
which most of our grapes are afflicted, as well in 
good as in bad seasons. Making bouquet matter, 
then, his base, and paying little attention to the 
acids, he estimates the quantity of dilution it will 
bear, and manfully pours in common water and 
cane-sugar till he runs his product up to a point be- 
yond what even his teacher dared aim at. He, too, 
insists his wine is as good as the original; yes, and 
better too. Less discreet than his neighbors in Her- 
mann and its vicinity, who, he thinks, will blame 
him " for letting the cat out of the bag," they pre- 
ferring to devote themselves in secret to the pursuit 
of the new science, he glories in the discovery and 
its results. Let him be heard. 

" But let us glance for a moment at the probable 
influence this discovery will have on American grape- 
culture. It can not be otherwise than in the highest 
degree beneficial ; for when we simply look at grape- 



124 European Vineyaeds. 

culture as it was ten years ago, with, tlie simple pro- 
duct of the Catawba as its basis, a variety which 
would only yield an average of say 200 gallons to 
the acre — often very inferior wine — and look at it 
to-day, with such varieties as the Concord, yielding 
an average of from 1000 to 1500 gallons to the acre, 
which we can yet easily double by Gallizing, thus, in 
reality, yielding. an average of 2500 gallons to the 
acre of nniformly good wine, can we be sui-prised if 
every body talks and thinks of raising grapes ? Truly 
the time is not far distant — of which we hardly 
dared to dream ten years ago, and which we then 
thought we would never live to see — when every 
American citizen can indulge in a daily glass of that 
glorious gift of God to man, pure light wine, and 
the American nation shall become a really temper- 
ate people." 

" And there is room for all. Let every one fur- 
ther the cause of grape-culture. The laborer, by 
producing the grapes and wine ; the mechanic, by in- 
ventions ; the lawgiver, by making laws furthering its 
culture and the consumption of it ; and all, by drink- 
ing wine, in wise moderation of course." — Page 172 
of " Geapes and Wine." 

Truly our German fi-iend has large notions of what 
he terms drinldng in moderation. Let us see how 



Pakis and the Great Exhibition. 125 

large that daily glass of the American citizen must 
be to hold all that is about to be poured into it. 

On page 22 of the book we learn that at the 
time it was written there had already been planted 
2,000,000 of acres of vineyard, or two fifths of the 
area devoted to vines in France. These, when in full 
bearing, as they will be in 1870, should, according to 
his lowest estimate, yield 2,000,000,000 gallons of nat- 
ural wine, about twice the product of France, from 
which, by Gallizing, we shall obtain 5,000,000,000 
gallons. Excluding children too young to drink, 
there should be in the whole country some 25,000,000 
able-bodied drinkers, the share of each of whom in 
the yearly vintage would be 200 gallons, something 
over three bottles a day. Then there are the tee- 
totalers — they might object to drink their share ; 
but I suppose we might funnel the teetotalers. 

Wlien Mr. Hussman wrote, American wines were 
selling at wholesale for $2 50 per gallon ; but since 
then, from increasing production, they have fallen to 
about $1 25, though consumers have to pay at least 
$2. The yearly crop, therefore, which we are led to 
hope for, will cost the drinkers of it $10,000,000,000, 
or sixteen times as much as we have of green money, 
plentiful though it be as forest leaves. With such a 
volume of wine to " cany," however, it is no wonder 



126 European Yinetards. 

there are people who think we still have too little of 
that foliage of the root of all evil. 

Of a truth we are ruined ! 

But both Gall and Ilussman must give way to an 
enterprising Frenchman, M. Petiot, who, for the last 
ten years, has been worldng thfe same rich vein. 

Gall makes as much wine as his acids will flavor. 
Hussman makes as much as his bouquet matter will 
odorize. Petiot, taking a collective \dew of things, 
assumes the must to contain 99 per cent, of water 
and sugar, and only one per cent, of all other sub- ' 
stances — tartar, tannin, resin, coloring matter, essen- 
tial oils, and all. " It is this one hundredth part," 
says he, " to tell the truth, icMcli constitutes the wine, 
which distinguishes it from other liquids, and which 
principally gives the distinctive qualities and fixes 
the price." 

Having brought his wine matter into this small 
compass of one per cent., he strikes out boldly, and 
does not stop till he has attained a^ye-fold result, 
having made, as he assures us, out of a quantity of 
grapes, sufficient to give only fifteen hundred gallons 
of natural wine, seven thousand gallons of the chemi- 
cal article ; all of it, he asseverates, better than the 
original, and with a better bouquet. 

One thing is strange. Chaptal flourished sixty 



Paris and the Great Exhibition. 127 

years ago. Gall and Petiot have been illuminating 
their respective countrymen some twelve years or 
more, and yet the plantation of the vine is every 
where extending, the natural product augmenting, 
and, at the same time, the price yearly rising. I 
knew great truths made their way slowly, but did 
not know great falsifications did. 

Graft Petiot on Hussman, and om* crop in 1870 
will be something hke 12,000,000,000 gallons, obhg- 
ing each of us to swallow eight bottles a day, and to 
pay for it the very pretty figure of $24,000,000,000 ; 
and where is that money to come from, one would 
like to know ? 

And enthusiastic Hussman calls on us to persevere 
in the good work, and extend the culture more and 
more ! Surely 

" A Dutchpian's drink must be 
Deep as the roaring Zuyder Zee." 

Gall has offered a ^^remium to any chemist who 
will detect in his brewage any thing hurtful to health, 
and cites high chemical authority to the effect " that 
no substance conducive to health is removed from the 
wine by an addition of sugar and water before the 
commencement of fermentation." The others are 
equally certain there is nothing unhealthy contained 
that chemistry can detect. 



128 European Vineyards. 

This is precisely the claim of those who feed cows 
on distillery slops conceniiug the milk they sell. And 
chemists find nothing in it but the water, sugar, but- 
ter, caseine, and salts proper to the milk of all cows, 
only they are combined in somewhat different pro- 
portions ; and yet the children die of it, many and 
fast. There is a limit to the authority of chemistry 
in regard to ahments. Who would like, for instance, 
to eat a chemically-compounded egg, having every 
quality of the hen-laid article which analysis could 
detect? But is it true these simulated wines are 
chemically identical with the real thing? 

The sum of the theory would seem to be that wine 
is diluted alcohol agreeably flavored to the taste, and 
sometimes perfumed also — a fair definition of a mint 
julep. 

Here are, 1st, alcohol ; 2d, acids ; 3d, bouquet mat- 
ter ; and, 4:th, water. All these exist in real wine, 
and all exist in the false as well. Admitting, for the 
moment, these to be all the ingredients contained in 
either, let us look at them separately. 

1. Alcohol. Not only do they produce this ele- 
ment by fermenting sugared water, but where none 
of the must is used, and all the wine matter is ex- 
tracted from the pomace. Gall enjoins adding distilled 
spirits in the proportion of eight per cent. 



Paris and the Gkeat Exhibition. 129 

Concerning such adulteration with spirits, Mr. E. 
Delarue says : " Take some of the wine to be tested 
in a porcelain capsule, which place over an alcohol 
lamp. Float in the wine a nut-shell filled w^ith oil, 
in which put a floating taper. Ballast the nut-shell 
with shot till its edges are brought even with the sur- 
face of the surrounding hquid. Light the lamp and 
the taper. Now, if you place a thermometer in the 
bowl, you will see that at 45 degrees of Centigrade, 
alcoholic vapors w^ill rise fi-om the wine and catch 
fire, forming romid the taper a reddish halo. Repeat 
the experiment with natural wine, and the vapors 
will not show themselves until the wine has reached 
90° of Centigrade, almost boiling point. In the first 
place, the alcohol was in the condition of a simple 
mixture; in the second, it was in a state of com- 
bination, or, we may say, intimate incorporation, 
and retained by a cohesive force not to be broken ex- 
cept by a high degree of heat." 

The true thing, then, adheres till the heat reaches 
90° of Centigrade, almost boiling point, w^hile the im- 
itated thing lets go at 45°, going off at just "half* 
cock." Now the normal temperature of the stomach 
is fi'om 98° to 100° Fahrenheit, only 13 to 15 de- 
grees below the point at which distilled alcohol sep- 
arates itself from other ingredients with which it 
F2 



130 European Vineyards. 

may be mixed. Must it not, then, when taken into 
the stomach, ahnost immediately explode upon the 
nerves of that organ the whole of its stimulating 
power, to be as rapidly communicated to the brain ? 
while undistilled alcohol, on the other hand, as it ex- 
ists in true wine, bound to its associates by the hand 
of Nature, and not stirred in with a stick, requires 
twice as much comjDulsion to make it part company, 
works but slowly while in the stomach, passes out of 
it in a combined, qualified, and modified form, and 
so, entering into circulation, expends its force gen- 
tly and slowly (may we not presume) upon each and 
every part in such way as that all are equally ex- 
alted, thus preserving equihbrium instead of distiu-b- 
ing it, as every agent must which exhausts itself upon 
only one or two organs. 

It is a fact that a person whose stomach is sensi- 
tive can easily detect the presence of distilled alco- 
hol in wine by the burning which he feels after 
drinking it. 

This may be the proper connection for suggesting 
that the slower effects of red wines as compared with 
those of white may be due to the enveloping, so to 
speak, of a considerable portion of the alcohol by the 
coloring matter, which, being a resin, will dissolve in 
alcohol, but not in water. 



Paris and the Great Exhibition, 131 

Liebig says : " Owing to its volatility, and the ease 
with which its vapor permeates animal membranes 
and tissues, alcohol can spread thronghout the body 
in all directions." 

Evidently the quickness or slowness with which so 
volatile a hquid passes to the state of an all-perme- 
ating vapor, to flash like thought from part to part, 
a*re most important when we are judging of the qual- 
ities of alcoholic drinks. 

Spirits and water, whether in form called cocktail, 
julep, or punch, are, in this respect, just like Dr. Gall's 
brandied wines. If, by reason of the earlier decom- 
position of their alcohol and its too sudden and neces- 
sarily unbalanced action on the organs, juleps, cock- 
tails, and punches are hurtful to health, happiness, 
and morals — if their tendency is to breed in the nerv- 
ous system a disease called the drunkard's thh-st, 
which true wine rarely does, then Gall's wines, hold- 
ing eight per cent, of added alcohol, are, for the same 
cause and in the same measure, injurious to health, 
happiness, and morals, and equally productive of the 
drunkard's thirst. And, since nothing iu a compound 
can be called a good mgredient unless it combines 
properly, an ingredient that goes loose at precisel}' 
the time when it should not, must be esteemed a bad 
one. 



132 European Vineyards. 

Chemists like Gall and his supporters, if he has 
any among chemists, who take no accomit of the 
manner in which the ingredients of wane combine 
with each other, as influencing their effects on health, 
are of small value as judges of another question now 
arising, which is. Do wines made of a certain quan- 
tity of grape-juice, mixed with a large body of sug- 
ared water, but with no addition of distilled alcohol, 
contain ingredients hurtful to health? Of this we 
are certainly at liberty to judge for ourselves, though 
I am as yet unable to indicate any chemical test 
bearing directly upon it. A presumption against al- 
cohol developed by fermenting sugar and water arises 
fi'om this, that, as in the case of distilled alcohol, 
which we have just been considering, the intruding 
ingredient comes in form of something artificially 
separated fi'om matters with which it was once natu- 
rally combined. If the wine with which Mr, Delarae 
experimented held its brandy but feebly in combina- 
tion for the reason that it had been sejjarated by dis- 
tillation fi-om other wine to wliich it was native — and 
we can imagine no other reason — then, by analogy, 
we may uifer that spirits de-s'eloped by fermenting 
in water grape-sugar, extracted from starch that was 
itself extracted from potatoes, will be held as feebly 
by the water, etc., in whose company it happens to 



Paris and the Great Exhibition. 133 

find itself, as tlie distilled alcohol of Delarue's ex- 
periment was by the wine into wliich it had been 
stirred. Extracts and mixtures naturally provoke 
suspicion. The sugar which ferments in juice of the 
ripe grape was always there. It and the watery par- 
ticles of that juice can hardly be called sugar and 
water. They are one — born of one root, and kindi-ed 
of one sap. Sap is thicker than water. 

We have seen that Gall finds the true mother of 
wine to be its acids ; that Ilussman thinks bouquet 
matter is the real quintessence, though without ex- 
pressly discarding the acids ; and that Petiot puts all 
A-irtue and wine power within the compass of the 
Y^th part, and dilutes it " a discretion.''^ 

Do these materials, one, any, or all of them, prop- 
erly combine with pump-water ? Especially do they 
combine as intimately in the imitation wines as they 
do in natural ones ? 

Tartaric acid, in which German as well as most 
American wines abound, is said never to be present 
as a fi'ee acid in French wines. But it is used in 
France to adulterate -with. To detect its presence, 
Mr. Delarue gives us the following test : 

"Mix some of the wine with twice its volume of 
chloride of potash, saturated at the temperature of 
15° Centigrade. Stir well with a glass rod, and if 



134 European Vineyards. 

in seven or eight minutes a crystalline powder of bi- 
tartrate of potash is precipitated, the tartaric acid has 
been added. If it were natm*al to the wine, it would 
not precipitate itself tinder several hours of stirring. ^^ 

Here we see the want of cohesion even more strik- 
ingly indicated than in the case of the intrusive alco- 
hol. In place of stirring in some pounds of crystal- 
lized tartaric acid, Gall and liis behevers collect a 
mass of grape-skins and seeds, and stii' them in, or 
they bring together grape-juice in which the acids 
already exist, and sweetened pump-water, set the two 
to ferment in company, and ask the wine to share 
half its quality with the water. And they mix, it is 
true, but how ? Why, in the same loose way as the 
tartaric acid of -Delarue's experiment did, to separate 
ten or twenty times earlier and easier than acids natu- 
rally present would. 

As regards the effect on health, would tliis be ten 
or twenty times too soon ? Yes, if the substance 
mixed with the sugared water by fermenting it on 
grape-husks or with grape-juice play any part beyond 
merely pleasing the palate. They may be, and prob- 
ably are, designed to qualify the action of the alco- 
hol, of the water, and of each other, while passing 
through the channels of circulation. In such case, we 
may reasonably suppose, it is as important for them 



Paris and the Gkeat Exhibition. 135 

to combine well as to combine at all. If tliey have 
uses to perform together, they should remain togeth- 
er until those uses are performed. If they have uses 
to perform separately, they should separate soon 
enough to perform them. A di'ink composed for the 
use of man, and destined to circulate and decompose 
within his body, should not merely contain good in- 
gredients, but they should hold together just long 
enough, and separate "at just the right moment. 

These considerations go to all those substances 
found in Petiot's -j^-g-th part of pure wine, and which 
he says " constitutes the wine," including of course 
Gall's and Hussman's acids and bouquet matter. 

Judging by Mr. Delarue's test, they are as easily 
shaken fi*om the rest of the fluid they are designed 
to disguise as the lion's skin was from the shoulders 
of the ass, and for the same reason — they did not 
grow there. 

And the water: has chemistry found nothing in 
the pump-water wines which can injure health, or 
which pure wine should not contain ? It has found 
there precisely what was in the well from which the 
water was pumped — lime, magnesia, clay, and what- 
ever other impurities the earth through which it came 
could supply. Whatever impurities of this kind find 
their way into grape-juice are in a short time almost 



136 European Yineyakds. 

entirely flung down.. But their quantity is never 
very considerable in pure vrine, as appears from the 
comparatively small precipitate deposited when it is 
brought in contact with oxalate of ammonia. 

It is true, distilled water may be used, but it is 
not, and will not be — that's all. Nor will very much 
sugared water be fermented to produce the alcohol 
required, though sugar for sweetening will no doubt 
be put in. Whisky, or neutralized whisky, will l3e 
found cheaper and readier. 

It seems plain that these gentlemen have no other 
idea of wine than as a diluted alcohol flavored with 
grape acid, and sometimes, too, colored with grape- 
skins. "Will such a drink wean us from whisky and 
rum, and make us a sober people, as wine-drinking 
peoples mostly are ? ISTeither the one nor the other, 
I think. It is repugnant to common sense that men 
can learn to love a mere chemical product as they 
can a natural one. Cocktails, cobblers, juleps, and 
puncTies are sweeter in the mouth than imitation 
Catawba or Concord can possibly be made. And if 
the copious supply of water with which we adulter- 
ate our w^hisky and rum has thus far failed to anti- 
dote tlie drunkard's thirst, the whole volume of the 
Missouri or the Rhine, mingled with spirits from 
cane or potato sugar, in however nicely adjusted pro- 
portions, will equally fail. 



Paris and the Gkeat Exhibition. 137 

We are now yearly consuming, and being con- 
sumed by, SO million gallons of whisky, mixed with 
a reasonable proportion of water ; and, though mil- 
lions of our people take the mixtm-e regularly and 
copiously, it is precisely they who are either actually 
drunkards, or going to be drunkards, or in great 
danger of being drunkards. Even the teetotalers 
seem in a better way to keep sober 

Fortunately, sugar costs something. Hussman es- 
timates the expense of making Gallized wine at CO 
cents a gallon; a good deal more, strange to say, 
than he does the outlay for growing real wine the 
natural way. In the south of France Gallization is 
never dreamed of, for they grow their alcohol cheap- 
er on the \'ine than they could brew it from sugar of 
any kind. And, when our countrj^nen shall learn 
to produce good, pure, wholesome wines at a cost of 
ten cents the gallon, there will be no need for my 
writing homilies at this prosy length upon the \dr- 
tues of pmity and truth. 

AJVIEEICAN WINES ABROAD. 

Om* Sparkling wines found greater favor on the 
palates of the jury which tried them than did the 
others with that which judged of them, whi-ch has 
helped me to believe in the excellence of the Ca- 



138 European Vineyards. 

tawba in the sparkling form. It was rather too 
much to ask of the French members especially, to 
fall in love with what seemed to them new and 
" sauvage^'' aromas and flavors. The German mem- 
bers appreciated them higher, and more justly, I am 
sm*e. The Norton Seedling, red and not pink, fully 
fermented on the skin, was received with decided 
respect, and complimented on its comparative neat- 
ness on the tongue and palate. 

We presented to the juries some 90 different sam- 
ples. Most of the SparkHng received honorable men- 
tion, the others no mention at all. I hoi^e we shall 
make a better show next time. 

The magnificent displays of the French, Bavarian, 
Austrian, Portuguese, and other departments afford- 
ed me an opportunity to make acquaintance with the 
products of the great world of vines in all its dis- 
tricts. The loss of a memorandum-book, however, 
prevents my giving some statistics in tliis connection 
that would be interesting. 

PORT WINE. 

I had read in the London Times a communica- 
tion, to which a conspicuous place was given, which 
argued that Port wine, as produced in Portugal for 
the British market, was brandied up to the very higli 



Pakis and the Great Exhibition. 139 

point of 26 per cent, of pure alcohol, for the sole 
purpose of making it keep. While tasting Portu- 
guese wines, I asked the commissioner if this was 
true. He answered no. The addition of brandy 
was to make it palatable and strong. To make Port 
as the British people love it, the fruit is first flung 
into an enormous tub or shallow vat, where as many 
as ten, twenty, thirty, and even sometimes sixty men, 
with trowsers rolled up above the knees, trample on 
it during from twelve to forty-eight hours, and until 
it is reduced to a thick mush. After tliis it is set to 
ferment, but at a certain point fermentation is ar- 
rested by adding brandy, which is done to preserve a 
portion of the richness of the grapes. Afterward 
the tendency to ferment is kept in check by repeat- 
ed additions of spirit, until, from containing a mod- 
erate amount of alcohol, it becomes about as strong 
as brandy and water — half and half. The fourteen 
years required to ripen this mixture is needed, not 
for the wine, but for the spirit, which, it seems, wants 
more age in mixture than when pm-e. 

VIENNA BEER AND PARIS WATER. 

How the French took to the Yienna beer on 
draught in the Austrian restaurant ! Well they 
might. No water in reach of Paris could make 



140 European Vine yards. 

sucli as that. Paris beer is not fit to drink. The 
Europeans have the best excuse for abstaining from 
water. You rarely find a drop that you can take 
witliout present disgust and future trouble. From 
this cause it is that water is drunk usually in the 
form called soda-water, of Seltzer- water, which is, in 
fact, only the evil fiuid of the Thames or Seine, 
crammed with carbonic acid gas. By far the best 
drink for an unfortunate teetotaler I found to be Eau 
de St. Galmier, brought from some distance, and 
costing four cents a bottle without the bottle. It 
has no impurities, except a good quantity of natural- 
ly incorporated carbonic acid gas, which, when sugar 
is added, makes it quite agreeable. The modes of 
supplying the cities are as defective as the quality 
supplied. The Seme water is filtered and sold by 
the bucket — which means that some of it is filtered, 
and a good deal sold by the bucket that is not filter- 
ed, but merely drawn from the hydrant in the court- 
yard. You pay for the pure article, but get the Gall- 
ized one, the concierge and your own domestics con- 
spiring often to cheat you not merely in quality, but 
in quantity also. Now Seine water is notoriously 
impure. To attempt filtering away its impurity, so 
as to present it as a drinkable fluid, is a cruel joke. 
In London it is no better than in Paris. The water- 



Paris and the Great Exhibition. 141 

works of our American cities are a national glory, 
and their outflow, bright and pure, goes far to keep 
us in the sad habits of the Kechabites, Mohammed- 
ans, and Teetotalers. In the day when red wine 
shall come, their crystal wealth will still be useful at 
table to dilute table-wine for such as like it diluted. 

The fii'st of July drew near, and I was still in 
Paris. The long, slow, pea-green spring had passed 
into a beautiful summer of fair weather, warm days, 
and rather dusty breezes. I knew well enough the 
vine-blossoms had come and gone, and the fruit was 
swelling in the clusters, and that I ought to be 
among them. But the Great Exliibition was in 
Paris, and to it and Paris the four quarters of the 
world were being gathered in. One, finding himself 
there in those days, found it easy to remain. 

The great day of all the seven months was the 
first day of July, when seventeen thousand of all 
I'aces and nations assembled to witness the distribu- 
tion of the rewards of merit at the Palace of Indus- 
try. On entering, I looked about to see where the 
fresh air was to come from, and found only a few 
port-hole openings beneath the ^'ast sky-light, enough 
perhaps to ventilate a beer-hall, and they only half 
opened. The weather was hot, and yet the people 
lived. The Continentals know little of ventilation. 



142 European Yineyakds. 

The only other fact left me to chronicle by the all- 
reporting press concerning the doings of the day is 
that, when the imperial party, in their tour of the 
hall, came opposite the American benches, there was 
a hurrah many times louder than had greeted them 
from those of any other nation, though the Ameri- 
cans were but few, which proves how much they 
love the great man, or else how much they love to 
hear themselves shout. 

I admit I occupied a good deal of the time in 
looking with a field-glass at the imperial, and royal, 
and princely people on the stage, almost opposite to 
where I had the good fortune to sit, and especially 
in noticing the empress, as she bestowed on each 
one who mounted the steps to receive his medal 
at the emperor's hands an imperial bow and a Eu- 
genean smile. Wonderful smile! as sunny -bright 
and honey-sweet as a landscape of Claude Lorrain, 
and, like it, a work of art too. She had just heard 
of poor Maximilian's death, but must for the day 
keep it a secret ; and heavy as the bullet in his 
buried heart was the hidden burden she carried in 
her own, all the while she smiled and smiled. 



Pakis and the Great Exhibition. 143 

pasteue and his discovery. 

I heard an unusual clapping of hands. Looking 
for the object of the applause, I saw mount the steps 
a gentleman whose embroidered coat showed him to 
be a member of the Institute. It was M. Pasteur, 
taking his great gold medal for having found a way 
to cure wine of all its diseases, and make it keep in- 
definitely long. With Pasteur was H. Mar^s, of 
Montpellier, who, better than any one else, I think, 
has taught us how to cure the oidium and keep it 
cured. I have, since then, been so happy as to make 
M. Marks' acquaintance, and, when I come to re- 
count my visit to Montpellier, I will introduce him 
to the reader. 

M. Pasteur has published a large volume on the 
subject of his discovery. The important part of the 
work for the 23ractical vintner to know is the instruc- 
tions how to conduct the process of heating the wine, 
in which the remedy consists, and these I have tried 
to condense in what follows. 

After explaining at length the nature of the vari- 
ous wine diseases, acidity, bitterness, etc., tracing 
them to vegetable parasites, and detaling his experi- 
ments in search of an agent to destroy the parasites, 
M. Pasteur arrives at the conclusion that they are 



144 European Yine yards. 

effectively destroyed by heating' the liquid up to a 
point between fifty and sixty-five degrees of Centi- 
grade, which would be from 122° to 149° of Fahren- 
heit. This can be done in a " haiii inarie^'' that is, 
by placing the bottle or cask in a vessel of water, 
and heating the water ; or by hot-air closets, or by 
steam-pipes introduced into the casks. The heating 
should be carefully and gradually done. 

The following is in the* words of the book : " The 
bottle being corked, either with the needle or other- 
wise, by macliine or by hand, and the corks tied on 
like those of Champagne bottles, they are placed in a 
vessel of water ; to handle them easily, they are set 
in an iron bottle-basket. The water should rise as 
high as the ring about the neck of the bottle. I 
have never yet completely submerged them, but do 
not think there would be any inconvenience in do- 
ing so, provided there be no partial cooling during 
the heating up, which might cause the admission of 
a little water into the bottle. One of the bottles is 
filled with water, into the lower part of which the 
bowl of a thermometer is plunged. When this 
marks the degree of heat desired, 149° of Fahren- 
heit, for instance, the basket is withdrawn. It will 
not do to put in another immediately, as the too 
warm water might break the bottles. To reduce 



Paris and the Gkeat Exhibition. 145 

tlie temperature to a safe point, a portion of the 
heated water is taken out and replaced with cold, or, 
better still, the bottles of the second basket may be 
prepared by warming, so as to be put in as soon as 
the fii'st comes out. The expansion of the wine dur- 
ing the heating process tends to force out the cork, 
but the twine or wire holds it in, and the wine finds 
a vent between the neck and the cork. During the 
coohng of the bottles, the volume of the wine having 
diminished, the corks should be hammered in far- 
ther. The tying is taken off, and the wine is put in 
the cellar, or on the ground floor, or in the second 
story, in the shade, or in the sun. There is no fear 
that any of these different modes of keeping it will 
render it diseased ; they will have no influence ex- 
cept on its mode of maturing, on its color, etc. It 
will always be useful to keep a few bottles of the 
same kind without heating it, so as to compare it, at 
long intervals, with what has been heated. The bot- 
tle may be kept in an upright position ; no mould 
will form, but perhaps the wine may lose a Kttle of 
its fineness under such conditions, if the cork gets 
diy and air is allowed too freely to enter." 

M. Pasteur aflirms that he has exposed casks of 
wine thus treated to the open air, on a terrace with 

G 



146 European Vineyards. 

a northern exposure, from April to December, with- 
out any injury resulting. 

Wine in cask may be heated by introducing a tin 
pipe through the bung-hole, which shall descend in 
coils nearly to the bottom, and return in a straight 
hne, and through this pipe passing steam. If, after 
being thus once heated, there is such exposure to air, 
by racking or bottling, for instance, as to admit a 
fresh introduction of parasites, the disease may again 
be cm'ed in the same way as at first. 

M. Pasteur's theory, or practice rather, is well re- 
ceived in France ; so well, in fact, that, though it was 
first made known in 1865, already, at the time of 
which I write, others had begun seriously to contest 
his claims to original discovery. The Vicount de la 
Vergnette-Lamotte, of Burgundy, insists that it is no 
other than his own method of storing wine during 
July and August in a garret, where the temperature 
might mount to 90° Fahrenheit, but perhaps not high- 
er, while Pasteur heats up to 122° at least. It is said, 
too, that an unscientific person who lived in the last 
generation used to heat his wine to preserve it ; and 
in the south of France they have a custom of expos- 
ing wine to the rays of the sun on the roof. A valu- 
able invention is always attacked. 

M. Pasteur's book has a very full report in favor 



Paris and the Great Exhibition. 147 

of his system, made by a committee of the Wine Mer- 
chants' Association of Paris. But all certificates are 
dispensed with by such a scene as I have described, 
where the value of the discovery is certified, and the 
discoverer rewarded by a great round first prize gold 
medal from Napoleon's hand, and a smile from Eu- 
genie's lips. 



148 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTEE X. 

KHEIMS. 

npHE fifteenth day of July, 1867, found me lodged 
at an agreeable little hotel in the old city of 
Rheims, capital of the ancient province of Cham- 
pagne, and next door to the great cathedral of cor- 
onation fame. I like such kitchens as that of the 
little hotel, close to the main hall and opening on it, 
where the cook is always present and ready to re- 
ceive your orders direct, dressed in fresh white linen, 
with a white cap on his head, and surrounded by 
dozens of brilliant copper saucepans, while on the 
milk-white dresser is piled the provision for the day 
— chops, steaks, and joints. Such a sight prepares 
one to be pleased with his dinner in advance. He 
was as dignified — the white cook in question — as a 
chemist in his laboratory, and a great deal cleaner. 

My old friend E., for ten years our chefde cave in 
Cincinnati, had returned some two years before with 
a snug fortune acquired in America, and was living 



R H E I M 8. 149 

at his ease in his native Rheims, or trying to do so. 
I had looked him up the evening of my arrival, and 
the next morning he called early, and arranged to 
take me a tour among the estates best worth seeing 
in the neighborhood. Soon after breakfast we drove 
out. As we left the town, the broad valley of the 
limpid and sage-green Marne lay before us, the fore- 
ground of the vine-covered hills, or rather mountains, 
rising with gentle slopes beyond. 

" Is the soil of the plain rich ?" I asked. 

" No ; it will bear tolerable crops, but needs enor- 
mous manuring. It is of chalk, like the hills; alf 
about here is chalk." 

A chalk soil is always pure, owing to its slow de- 
composition, I suppose. It is also fine. Champagne 
wine is born on chalk hills, and grows old in chalk 
cellars. The same formation as that I found at 
Eheims I had last seen in the fonn of the white 
cliffs of Albion, and before then in the South Downs, 
where the finest of mutton sheep graze on its short 
grass, and take their quality from its fineness and 
sweetness. The old rule was in force in the Marne 
Yalley, as elsewhere— poor soil, rich product ; great 
wine in little quantity. 

Crossing the river and the level ground of its val- 
ley, the road conducted us with an easy rise up the 



150 European Vineyards. 

base of the mountain of Eheims, and soon we found 
ourselves among fields of the most stunted and close- 
Ij-set vines ever seen, cultivated with unwearied pains, 
and enjoying the choicest soil and best exposure — 
vines of quality they. Higglety-pigglety the vines 
of quahty stood, each one with its little stake to help 
it hold up its small offspring of fruit. They were 
crowded much closer than those on the Cote d'or, 
some plantations being set so thickly as to hold 
25,000 to the acre. The object of this close plant- 
ing in the one district, as well as the other, being to 
*force the ripening, by dint of suffocation and starva- 
tion, at the expense of vigor. 

A long drive among such fields brought us, at 
length, to the quiet little village of Saint Thierry. 
It was as still, in fact, as a deserted village. The 
men were at work, the children at school, and the 
girls and women were gathered about an old stone 
fountain of abundant deHvery, where, under wide- 
spreading trees, they washed their linen sociably. 
Under the trees we alighted, and went and looked 
up the cure of Saint Thierry, to ask his services in 
gaining us admission within the walled inclosure of 
a great estate near by. The good man, after offer- 
ing us wine, conducted us through the close-walled 
and silent lanes, till we reached a great oaken gate, 



Rheims. 151 

which he soon got somebody to open. Entering, we 
found the grounds to be of most respectable aspect, 
tolerably kept, but pervaded by a lonesome, solemn, 
monkish air, easily accounted for when they told me 
it had been a convent once. Here was another for- 
tunate coincidence. Did the good sisters choose this 
spot whereon to build their house of earthly tribula- 
tion because the earth about it grew so excellent a 
wine to moisten their clay, or was the good wine-soil 
brought to their doors because of their many virtues, 
and to reward their many abstinences ? I have read 
that some of the nuns of Charlemagne's time had to 
be restrained from not very pretty habits, into which, 
in that rude age, they had fallen. He was a rough 
old fellow, and bad ; but, like other old bad fellows, 
had a fine sense of maidenly propriety. He said he 
would be if his nuns should not be made to be- 
have Hke decent women, and no longer stroll through 
the towns, haunt taverns, get drunk, and lie about in 
wayside ditches. How he shut them up, and how he 
punished them, I don't know. I can't think, however, 
that the vestals of Saint Thierry ever needed the em- 
peror's rough discipline for over-draughts of the pure 
and sparkling wine grown within their own domain. 
It may sometimes have elevated their souls a Httle 
too near the skies, but could never have brought 
their bodies to the gutter. 



152 European Vineyards. 

From the walk to the chateau, I was attracted to- 
ward a balustered terrace on the left, flanked by two 
handsome flights of stone steps, from which there was 
a charming view. While enjoying it, a gentleman of 
good mien approached, and was introduced as M. 
Camus, the proprietor of the chateau of Saint Thier- 
ry, a resident proprietor, and not a Paris -haunting 
absentee, like too many in France. 

Under his guidance, I took a long stroll through 
the vines, which was rendered very instructive by his 
conversation as we went. His vines were planted 
close enough to put 16,000 within an acre. They 
were all layered every year, and in the following 
manner : A trench is dug, usually nine inches deep 
at the foot of the plant, and extending from it to a 
point which the cane chosen for the purpose will 
reach after being pruned. Usually it branches to- 
ward the end, and the two branches, each cut back 
to two eyes, show above the soil, after they are laid 
down and covered up, like two slender and short 
twigs. Yines thus trained are called low. 

There is also a custom of layering only once in 
seven or eight years, but then at such period all are 
layered. The practice of doing it only as plants 
grow sickly, or dead ones need replacing, which ob- 
tains in Burgundy, is not known in Champagne, I 



Rheims. 153 

think. Vines laid down every seven or eight years 
are called high. 

These need, of course, a trench to lie in suited to 
their larger size, and considerably deeper than nine 
inches — from sixteen to twenty, perhaps. Such vines 
are not set so thickly as low vines are. 

I asked M. Camus if such frequent renewals, keep- 
ing the plants in perpetual youth, as it were, with no 
ancient and wi'inkled stock to break the impetuous 
flow of sap, did not hurt the quality of the product. 
And I told him, in the same connection, of the old 
vines of the Cote d'or, and that in Medoc the juice 
of yoimg ones was not allowed to class as quality 
No.l. 

He told me in reply that when new plants were 
set out upon the finer hill soils, which came from 
lower and inferior grounds, it needed some twelve 
years for them to acquire " the quality of the hill ;" 
but as to vines that had acquired this quality, he did 
not think their yearly renewal affected injuriously 
their fruit. High vines were renewed only at each 
seventh or eighth year, and yet it was usually the 
low vines that produced the best wine. He thought 
old vines, though ever so often layered, remained old 
vines still, and were not rejuvenated to any purpose 
that could affect the quahty of their fruit. Possibly 
G2 



154 European Vineyards. 

he was right ; but what becomes, then, of the facts that 
look directly the other way? Such contradictions 
are puzzling. Maybe old vines bear sweet fruit, not 
because they are wrinkled, or crooked, or ugly, but 
by virtue of some other quality, as yet unknown, that 
comes with age. 

" You have but little oi'dium in Champagne ?" I ob- 
served. 

" We have enough of it, though, and it has to be 
treated with remedies. My vines are never troubled 
with it, however. They would be if not frequently 
layered, I am sure." He then gave me details and 
reasons which convinced me he was right in this in- 
ference. 

Like nearly all the proprietors of the district, M. 
Camus did no bottling, but sold his crop soon after it 
was made. He informed me that for twenty years, 
or thereabout, he had disposed of every crop to one 
house, always leaving it to the purchaser to fix a 
price. I regret that in losing my memorandum-book 
I lost some details obtained from M. C. of the cost 
of production, the average product, and prices ob- 
tained. 

A view of uncommon extent and beauty was al- 
ways before the eye at the chateau. The house, 
through portions of which they were good enough to 



Rheimb. 155 

show us, still preserved traces of the old convent. It 
was quaint, and yet rather grand too, inspiring a re- 
spect for its inmates. It would be as hard to repro- 
duce as an avenue of old oaks. "All the modern 
conveniences" are convenient enough, I know, but 
they certainly don't impress the casual visitor with 
such a desire to stay and be at home as does tlie 
peculiar, stately, unpurchasable aspect of a house 
like that of St. Thierry. 

The dwellers in such a home are to be envied, 
especially by a Western American vine-dresser, re- 
siding as they do in the midst of their possessions 
and effects — their wealth of vines about them and of 
wine beneath them — with enough to do and plenty 
to do it with — enjoying a farmer's freedom without 
his rusticity, and an aristocrat's luxury and comfort 
without his ennui. In America, to be a gentleman 
farmer requires a fortune at interest. Maybe the 
time will come when vine-dressing shall be so well 
understood and reliable for income — which it is not 
yet by a good deal — as that the owner of a hundred 
acres in grapes can sit under his own vines and trees 
in lordly independence and republican ease. As yet, 
however, chateau life is with us quite too near an im- 
possibility, except in a suburban and imitation way. 
For the present, our fate is to be either rough-and- 
tumble farmers, or cits. 



156 European Vineyards. 

The next drive took us among high, vines, which 
appeared, as to cultui'e and training, much like those 
I saw in Bm'gundy. Both white and red grapes are 
grown, but, with slight exception, all are converted 
into white wine, and that is bottled for Sparkhng. 
The white grape wine has more of the true Cham- 
pagne quality, delicacy, lightness, and sparkle than 
what is obtained from red grapes, and is usually 
mixed with the latter in the proportion of one eighth, 
or one fourth. 

The chalk or chalky rock of the vineyards is cov- 
ered with but a thin layer of soil, which consists of 
about four parts of carbonate of lime and one part 
of silica and clay, which proportions are sometimes 
varied by the presence of oxide of iron. 

At first planting the roots are not set very close, 
the distances being from three feet three inches be- 
tween the lines by two feet ten inches within the 
lines, to three feet by one foot eight inches. Before 
planting, the soil is broken up to the depth of twen- 
ty inches or a little more. Two and three year old 
plants are preferred. Composted manure is flung 
in about the roots on setting out. The first year 
they are four times weeded ; the second, they are cut 
back to one or two eyes, are hoed in March, and aft- 
erward weeded three times. 



Rheims. 157 

In April or May of the following year, a sufficient 
number of the most vigorous shoots are laid down to 
fill one third of the unoccupied space between the 
vines as they stand in their rows. The next year 
another third of the space is in the same way filled, 
and another year's layering completes the plantation 
with an utter rout {deroute) of the original ranks. 
At each of these layerings compost is freely used. 

Pruning is done in February or March. From 
the middle of May to the middle of June they again 
stir the ground to the depth of about three inches. 
After blossoming, which usually comes about the 
24th of June, the shoots are tied up, and buds not 
wanted are rubbed off. After this comes pinch- 
ing in and another hoeing. Often there is a last 
pinching in as late as September, followed by a su- 
perficial hoeing, so managed as to remove from be- 
neath any bunches touching the gromid enough soil 
to let the fruit hang free. 

Vintage often begins as early as the 15th of Sep- 
tember, but the first week of October is of tener the 
time. The bunches are carefully examined by the 
" cutters," and all bad berries removed. 

These details, which to some may seem inapplica- 
ble in our country, are given for the benefit of the 
colder portions of it, where grapes of desirable vari- 



158 EuEOPEAN Vineyards. 

eties do not ripen well, as at present cultivated. In 
the Marne, which lies on the northern verge of the 
European vine zone, fine and valuable wines could 
be produced in no other way. To the peculiar meth- 
od just described the world owes the joy of that won- 
drous and sensational drink called Champagne. 

If it is objected that American vines are of too 
rank growth to bear such dwarfing, let it be consid- 
ered that the treatment is only for such as grow on 
meagre soils ; that with more vigorous growers some- 
what wider planting might do, until, by dint of con- 
tinued dwarfing, they become smaller. I confess I 
would like to see the Delaware — choice little queen 
of pigmies — close set as above on the right soil and 
exposure. 

The cost of cultivation need not be so great as 
many would suppose. 

In some parts of the Marne a black earth contain- 
ing sulphur is hauled upon the vineyards to improve 
the soil, but I did not happen to see it. They think 
it prevents oidium. If there be sulphur enough, it 
is a good preventive ; still, I would rather believe in 
layering, wliich, beyond doubt, is, when often enough 
repeated, a remedy of itself. 

This reminds me that the remarkable success of 
grape-growing along the borders of Lake Erie is now 



R H E I M s. 159 

attributed by some to the presence in the soil of the 
bituminous shale of the Hamilton group, such as is 
found in the Pennsylvania oil regions. This shale 
is said to contain, besides iron and sulphur, a large 
quantity of potash. It is recommended by some to 
be hauled upon sandy lands, as a manure to vines 
planted there, and which are found to be much less 
favorable to the grape than clayey lands, which, in 
the region in question, abound in the shale. 

The same Hamilton shale crops out in vast beds 
on both sides of the Ohio River, from a little way 
below Portsmouth down to about the mouth of 
Brush Creek, in Adams County. I shall this year 
try the experiment of spreading a layer of it over 
a portion of my vineyard. 

In many of the vineyards about Rheims sulphur 
is in regular use. If layering be a perfect prevent- 
ive on all soils, then the vines .which need sulphur 
must be high vines, laid down only every seven or 
eight years. I am sorry to say I did not think to 
ascertain this point. 

In the garden of the house where Mr. F. lived 
I was shown a large vine trained to cover a high 
wall. One half of it was in good condition, laden 
with fi'uit, and covered with dark green, healthy 
leaves. The other half, on the contrary, had but lit- 



160 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

tie fruit, and its foliage, faded to a yellowish hue, 
was already falling. Said F., " I tried, last year, an 
experiment on that vine, by sulphuring well only 
the half you see so healthy now, letting the disease 
have its way with the other. I did this to learn if 
my neighbors in America were right, who say oidium 
can not be cured." 

Evidently the result showed, first, that the oidium 
can rage in the Department of the Marne as well as 
elsewhere ; and, secondly, that it is perfectly curable. 
They apply sulphm* three times in the com'se of the 
season, and with a bellows and dredging-box. All 
with whom I spoke thought it important to make the 
application early enough in the day for the sulphur 
to adhere to the dew on the lower side of the leaves. 
F. had been a practical vine-dresser on an Ohio Eiver 
hill-side, and had seen the disease there in its worst 
form. So his opinion was worth heeding, that with 
thorough and judicious sulphm' treatment it may be 
conquered. 

After another day spent in seeing the cathedral 
and visiting the principal cellars in Rheims, I took a 
train for the north, and, crossing first the ultimate 
boundary of the vine zone and then the Belgian 
frontier, was soon far away from gay France, and 



R H E I M 8. 161 

among a people whose language is French, but whose 
temperament is not, for they produce no wine. 

I was a few days, too, in Holland, where, though 
water abounds, it has nevertheless so evil a quality, 
the people abstain fi-om it almost totally, and drink 
instead a clear hquid looking much like it, called 
gin ; being, in fact, a wine after Gall's recipe, name- 
ly, diluted alcohol flavored with juniper-berries, ISTot- 
withstanding, however, their abstinence and their an- 
tidote, so humid is the atmosphere, much water en- 
ters by the hmgs and pores, rendering them l;)Taphat- 
ic, hepatic, splenetic, and heavy. 

Finding my way out of Holland by the Rhine Val- 
ley, I entered Germany, and slept for the first night 
in the ancient city of Cologne, where the traveler 
finds a grand cathedral, a sweet perfume, and some 
uncommonly offensive odors. 



162 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE RHINE AND JOHANNISBERG. 

npO ascend the Rhine, I took passage on a small 
-■- boat, called a Mississippi steamer because she 
had a httle saloon under the quarter-deck and even 
with the main-deck, for shelter from the weather and 
to eat in. In this craft, comfortably enough, we 
worked up stream, going slowly, as we ought when 
a double line of curious and beautiful objects is to 
be seen, enjoyed, and committed to memory. 

The vineyards terraced on the stone sides of the 
steep hills were very well worth seeing — the hard 
handiwork of a determined people, resolved on get- 
ting wine to drink, even if they m.ust smite the rock 
for it, as Moses did for water. This hardscrabble sort 
of vine-culture is one of the attractions of the Rhine, 
and, like Drachenfels, "The Cats," "The Mice," and 
other well-kept and beautiful ruins, serves to draw 
yearly crowds of tom-ists, whose plunder is more val- 
uable to the inhabitants than was formerly that of 



The Rhine and Johannisberg. 163 

the travelers and pilgrims upon whom the nobility 
and gentry — original builders of the towers and cas- 
tles now in ruins — used to swoop down like eagles of 
prey, as they were. The region of steep, terraced hills, 
however, is not the Bhinegau, where are Rudesheim, 
Steinberg, and Johannisberg. The wines wrung with 
so much toil from those surfaces of basalt is mostly 
sour and hard, Hke our own Catawba grown on strong 
ground, abounding, Hke it, in tartaric acid, which Lie- 
big says is good for gout, gravel, and stone — by ho- 
moeopathic rule of contraries, maybe. It is the base 
of much GalKzation. 

The Grand Turk, returning from a visit to Napo- 
leon, happened to need our comfortable " Mississip- 
pi," and so at Coblentz we were put upon a still 
smaller craft — an " Ohio," perhaps — in whose close 
hold the entire company of passengers had to pack 
themselves for shelter from a hard storm of rain, 
and so we went by the celebrated district without 
seeing it. I blamed myself, on reaching Mayence, 
for not getting off at Coblentz, to come on the day 
after, so as to see the Rhinegau in clear weather ; 
but, had I so planned it, the memorable things which 
happened to me on that day — a day to be marked in 
my calendar with a white stone — ^yea, with a pearl — 
would have been missed forever. 



164 European Vine yards, 

johanotsbeeg. 

The cliffs of basalt that close in on the Rhine as 
you pass Coblentz in going up stream, and which, 
according to a habit that hardest of rocks has for al- 
ways reposing on the softest, lies on a bed of sand- 
stone, give way after you pass Bingen, allowing the 
sandstone to appear and occupy the surface, which it 
does in a series of gentle swells and hills. The course 
of the river is here from east to west, which brings 
the right bank to face directly south. The zone 
called the Rhinegau extends from Wallauf, a little 
below Mayence, down to Eudesheim, a distance of 
12 or 15 miles, with a breadth of three or four. 

The most conspicuous of its hills is one of mound- 
like shape and individuality, on whose southern ex- 
posure are some fifty or sixty acres in vines, while 
the top is crowned by the castle or palace of Johan- 
nisberg, which is, however, no great things as either 
palace or castle — no great things, I mean, consider- 
ing how precious is the ground it stands on. 

Every body has heard of it, and knows how it came 
to the great Metternich on the downfall of the first 
Napoleonic empire, and is now owned by his de- 
scendant, the present Prince Metternich, and Aus- 
trian embassador at the court of the Tuileries. 



The Rhine and Johannisbekg. 165 

The claims of its rivals to the contrary notwith- 
standing, there is no doubt Johannisberg is the most 
famous vineyard in the world — a very Mecca or Je- 
rusalem to the vine-grower or wine-drinker on his 
pilgrimage — and pleasanter to visit, I should think, 
than either of those musty, holy cities of the past. 
The day after the rain-storm was all could be wished, 
and I devoted it to the Rhinegau and Johannisberg. 
Going on board a down-river steamer, from her deck 
I enjoyed a survey of the entire land of promise from 
Wallauf to Rudesheim, and even unto Bingen, for 
the boat did not stop at Rudesheim. 

Crossing to the Rudesheim side in a small boat, I 
found myself still about a mile from the tovtm, which 
distance I must go afoot. From the uneven shore- 
path I strayed upon the well-graveled track of a rail- 
way that conveniently led in the direction 1 was go- 
ing, but a rough official drove me off with shouts 
and gestures. In Germany grown people are watch- 
ed as tenderly as we do children in America, and 
every convenient place for getting crushed, or drown- 
ed, or breaking your neck is as thoroughly policed as 
if one had not the nght to quit when he pleases a 
world which wise men have long ago pronounced a 
failm'e. 

A German professor remarked to a friend of mine 



166 European Vineyards, 

that he had heard our American police allowed any 
one who fancied it to take an unlicensed leap over 
Niagara Falls ! It is true they do, and Blondin and 
Sam Patch are but living and dying examples of 
what free institutions will do for a man. 

At the railway station I found a hack, which, get- 
ting in, I told the driver, " Schloss Johannisberg," 
which was all I knew how to tell him, seeing I spoke 
no German. A drive of four or five miles, the last 
of it up a gentle rise, overcoming a perpendicular 
height of about three hundred feet, I should think, 
brought me round to a little village at the back of 
the castle, and then through a gateway into the court- 
yard. If I had looked at the castle instead of the 
vines on the way up, I should have noticed, what I 
did not, the dark Austrian flag flying from the staff 
on the roof. I saw it only after the carriage had 
stopped before the principal entrance, and the pres- 
ence of several servants round the door, the yard 
fresh covered with yellow sand, and green-house 
plants ranged along the walls, made me look about. 
The family were at the castle. 

A servant came to the carriage who understood no 
French. He went and brought another who under- 
stood very little, for, after receiving my card, with 
request that he take it to the director, M. Herz- 



The Rhine and Johannisberg. 167 

mansky, whose name, furnished by the waiter at the 
hotel in Mayence, was absolutely the only clew I 
possessed to Johannisberg, he went in, but returned 
in a minute to ask me to alight and enter, while he 
went to find the princess, who was walking on the 
terrace. 

" Madame the Princess ! Pardon me, I only want 
to see M. Herzmansky on business." Had I told this 
to the driver when I took the carriage, he would have 
stopped at the door of the business-ofBce. But, when 
M. Herzmansky came, the little difficulty of lan- 
guage again occurred. He spoke no French. It 
was while I was endeavoring, by help of the servant, 
to explain why I asked of liis courtesy admission to 
whatever it was proper I should see, that a gentleman 
approached, whose magnificent appearance, more than 
the general lifting of hats, showed him to be of some 
distinction. It was Count Edmund Zechy, of Hun- 
gary. By his politeness, I was very soon put in prop- 
er relation with the director, who, conducting me to 
his ofl3ce, asked me to be seated, while his son, just 
returned from the University, was sent for to be our 
translator. 

His first effort was the doing into French a message 
from the princess that at four o'clock she would take 
coffee in the cellar with some friends, and inviting me 



168 European Vineyards. 

to be present. To take coffee with a princess would 
be something ; to take coffee with the Princess Met- 
ternich was a great deal. To take that coffee with 
such a princess in the grottoes of Johannisberg was 
more of good fortune than often falls to one's lot of 
a summer's day. I accepted ; who would have de- 
clined ? 

This was about two o'clock, so there was still 
abundant time for a walk through the vineyards. 
Yet there was no more than time, since the good 
Herzmansky was so pains-taking an instructor, and 
his rephes so full, and he made the tour about the 
hill so extensive, that when it was ended four o'clock 
had come. 

Those who may be familiar with the strongly-col- 
ored red sandstone or sand-shale earth seen about 
Newark and elsewhere in New Jersey, or with the 
soils of similar appearance and constitution near 
New Haven and at other places in Connecticut, 
would recognize in that of Johannisberg an old ac- 
quaintance. The entire hill was of the same ; nor 
did I see any other in any of the Ehinegau vine- 
yards, though I was told there was some slate in 
places. As the deep color could be due to nothing 
else than iron, that element must have been present 
in good large proportion ; considering which, I recall- 



The Rhine and Johannisbebg. 169 

ed that the Medoc soil abounded in iron, that it was 
even stronger on the Cote d'or, and was not wanting 
in Champagne. I recalled also that the places in 
New Jersey and Connecticut where the like appear- 
ance is seen are noted for good fruit and sweet veg- 
etables. It was not, as I should think, by any means 
a rich ground, and the grain of it was coarse. 

Pausing at the steepest part of the hill, which is 
immediately below the castle, M. Herzmansky call- 
ed my attention to it as being the place from which 
the best^wine came. There was nothing to distin- 
guish it from the neighboring parts except its steep- 
ness, which was so great I inquired why its soil seem- 
ed so little washed away after so heavy a rain as had 
just fallen ? He replied that it was because of deep 
and frequent tillage ; but that would not have saved 
it, I am sm'e, were it not for its coarse, and loose, and 
maybe shaly texture. He added that, to compen- 
sate for w^liat washing did occur, he hauled on to the 
higher parts, from time to time, good earth from the 
north side of tlie hill, which, slowly descending under 
the action of rains, not only replenished the substance 
of the ground, but improved its quality. 

The two-forked hoe the laborers were using I no- 
ticed to be one half longer in the bit than any I had 
ever before seen, and that such a tool could be sunk 

H 



lYO European Vineyards. 

up to the hub at each blow, as I saw the stout-armed 
fellows doing, showed the ground to be of extraor- 
dinary lightness. The hoeing is done four times a 
year. 

Stakes were the only supports. Trellis might be 
used to advantage, no doubt ; but, as with other kings 
and rulers, the role of the Johannisberg vines is to 
be conservative, and let well enough carefully alone. 
When I asked M. H. if he had heard of M. Liebig's 
recommendation to ferment wine, like Bavarian beer 
(our lager), in open vats and at a low temperature, he 
answered that Liebig had spent some weeks at Jo- 
hannisberg, and had, while there, suggested that very 
thing, which he (M. H.) thought might do very well, 
but he also thought experiments should first be tried 
on less valuable grape-must than what his vines gave. 

The vines were of good size, and spaced, I believe, 
like nearly all I saw in Germany, about three feet 
apart. Care had been taken not to overcharge them 
with fruit. 

Surprised to see a square piece of what seemed as 
good vine-ground as the rest covered with only a crop 
of clover, I asked the reason. It seemed the piece in 
question had lately accomplished its fiftieth year of 
grape-bearing, and, according to the traditional usages 
of the place, had been liberated from its vines, whicli 



The Rhine and Johannisbekg. 171 

had been thoroughly extirpated, and was now in clo- 
ver, keeping its jubilee of three years, at the end of 
wliich time it would be planted again, after receiving 
an overturning to the depth of three feet. 

Vintage, which is delayed as long as possible, is 
conducted somewhat as in the Sauterne district, the 
fruit being gathered as it ripens, and selected berry 
by berry, so that the ground is three and four times 
gone over before all is done, which carries them often 
well into ISTovember. These late vintages and suc- 
cessive gatherings are, of late years, the general usage 
throughout Germany. Dry weather is thought essen- 
tial for the gathering, and, before pressing, the grapes 
are often spread out to dry during from twelve to 
twenty-four hours. I am pretty sm-e they told me 
they pressed "without allowing any previous fermen- 
tation on the skin. 

So rich in sugar is Johannisberger that its final 
maturity and clarification is the work of about seven 
years, during which, from time to time, it repeats, as 
it were, its second fermentation. All great wine ri- 
pens slowly, I have noticed, and from the same cause, 
I suppose. The casks hold, as I should guess, near 
200 gallons. One of them, called " the bride of the 
cellar," contains the best wine in store, and is kept in 
reserve till its mate in excellence is found, to which 



172 European Vineyakds. 

it then gives place. The Germans are full of such 
pretty fancies. 

From the character of the soil and appearance of 
the vines, I judged manure was used, and asked if 
it were so. M. Herzmansky replied that it was, and 
after we had done the vines he showed me a large 
stable of admirable arrangement, where a number of 
cows were kept and " soiled." Others, to the number 
of forty in all, were let out to the work-people on 
condition to be similarly kept, and the manure deliv- 
ered as rent for their use. No other kind than this 
was used, and of it a good deal was applied. M. H. 
insisted that no injury to quality resulted, and even 
thought it improved the bouquet. It may be so; 
judges often differ. Many men have many minds. 
Circumstances alter cases. Wliat's one man's meat 
is another man's poison. The monks of old Vougeot 
let their vines stand 500 years, while those of old Jo- 
hannisberg uprooted theirs every fifty years. 

The monks once owned Johannisberg, then ? To 
be sure they did — the monks of St. John — only an- 
other coincidence, miracle, or special providence. 
Should all the good things in this world go to the 
share of the sinners or of the saints, I would like to 
know? 

But then the saints drank up all the good wine. 



The Rhine and Johannisberg. 173 

The poor sinners, destined to so hard a fate in the 
end, needed some little consolation in the way of 
present creature comforts. 

But the monks had no wives or sweethearts. 

Poor fellows — more to be pitied than the poor sin- 
ners — it was right to let them have the wine ! 

" Here is an American vine," said young M. Herz- 
mansky as we left the stables, and, sure enough, there 
was an Isabella, trained to a wall, and growing well. 
They surprised me by remarking that its fruit had 
too rank a flavor. Returning to the office, the di- 
rector showed me his labels, and, at my request, gave 
me a sample of each kind, signed with his name, as 
is that of every bottle sent from the cellar, and also 
a hst of prices. Here is a copy of it, the prices being 
per bottle : 



1857, C 




nl 4 


(1 




' 2 


1858 




' 9 


(( 




' 7 


11 




' 4 


< ( 




' ?. 


1859, 




' ?0 


1862, 




' 14 


(' 




' 10 


C( 




' 7 


(( 




' 4 



30 



30 



174 European Vineyakds. 

The florin is equal to forty cents, and sixty kreut- 
zers make a florin. It seems the administration, in 
which M. Ebenhoch is associated with M. Herzman- 
sky, receive and fill orders addressed directly to them 
at Schloss Johaimisberg, authenticating every bottle, 
as I said, with the signature of the director, M. Joh. 
Herzmansky. I need not say the chances are poor 
for obtaining the genuine thing through the ordinary 
channels of commerce. It will be seen that, except 
for the very highest grades, which are only to be 
tasted on great occasions, the prices are not by any 
means extravagant. 

Many years ago an old man of the neighborhood 
came to the castle and offered his services, so goes 
the story, without compensation, to oversee the labor 
in the vineyards. His offer was accepted, and for a 
long time he performed the duties he had assumed 
from love of them. It was worth somethina; to be 
chief vine-dresser on the slopes of Olympus. 

Four o'clock had come, and the gods were assem- 
bling — that is to say, a party of ladies and gentlemen 
were descending the steps of a door at the side of the 
castle, and were about entering that of the cellars 
which opened close by it. One of them, a lady of 
the Hungarian type of face, cloaked and hooded for 



The Rhine and Johannisbeku. 175 

the descent into the lower regions, met me as I drew 
near, and addressed me in perfect English. 

I told her why I had come to Johamiisberg, add- 
ing that, had I known, however, of her being there, I 
should not have taken the liberty. 

" But why not ?" she said. " I'm sm*e I feel very 
much obliged to you for taking the trouble." 

Which made me feel I was "no intruder. 

The cellars were right under the schloss. As we 
entered, I could perceive that it was wide and liigh, 
arched overhead, and remarkably dry and clean. 
Numerous candles lighted it brilliantly. At the up- 
per end was a sort of stage scene formed of green- 
house trees, shrubs, and flowers, and other ornaments, 
having quite a pretty effect. 

It seemed it was a wine-tasting pai*ty, composed of 
people assembled from the neighborhood, and some 
friends then on a visit to the princess. And on 
that day of all others, when wine was to rain down, 
it was my fortune to be there with my goblet held 
up! 

After making a tour of the alleys, we reached a 
place where a table was spread and cliairs arranged, 
around which the company seated themselves. After 
an explanation from M. Herzmansky that, though her 
highness had ordered coffee, yet, as it was inconsist- 



176 European Vineyards. 

ent with that perfect equilibrium of the senses and 
freshness of the organs of taste required where his 
nectar was to be received, he had taken the liberty 
of suppressing it, and would at once proceed to place 
before us samples of different vintages in the order 
of their merit, beginning with one of the lower 
grades (all which was explained to me by Count 
Zechy, next whom I sat), the wine was then served 
in green Hock glasses of good capacity. The first, 
and least good of the eight or ten different sorts, was 
much the best white wine I had ever tasted. It was 
followed by a better, and then a better, and then a 
better still, mounting in scale of graduated excel- 
lence — the enthusiasm rising, too, in like measure — 
until the best was reached in form of a cask twenty- 
one years old — just come to its majority, in the sip- 
ping of which one could only exclaim. Wonderful ! 
wonderful ! " The bride of the cellar" was yet to 
come ; and she came, radiant and delightful as star- 
crowned Ariadne, bride of Bacchus. 

Is it expected I should describe these upper Johan- 
nisbergers ? Epithets, comparatives, and superlatives 
gave out in exhaustion a long way down the ladder. 
" Richness," " fineness," " softness," " body," " vinos- 
ity," " flavor," " bouquet," terms of commerce and of 
table small-talk, all apply to wine, and are limited in 



The Rhine and Johannisberg. 177 

meaning by the finite qualities of their subject. But 
I am writing of Johannisbbrgek. 

Shall I talk poetry to it, and try to compass its ex- 
cellence with figures and flowers of speech ? Or shall 
I quote, where I dare not originate, and make the 
Great Master of the lyre speak for me ? Let us see. 
He has done his tersest and best when he tells us 
Ulysses took with him to the isle of the Cyclops wine 
that was 

"Kich, unadulterate, and fit for gods to drink." 

But would the gods themselves be fit 
For drink so rich and pure as it ? 

" Look there !" said Count Zechy. I looked up, and 
saw the scene I have named, at the other end of the 
grotto, slowly rise in the air, floating among clouds 
of violet and rose, through which shone rays of every 
iris tint — the scene itself changing, as it moved, into 
a celestial landscape. For a long while it remained 
in view. Now it approached and now receded, all 
the time rising, and so, gently coming and going, and 
slowly mounting upward, it passed away. 

"Was it " the bride of the cellar" had made us see 
this beautiful thing? 

No ; it was M. Herzmansky burning Bengal lights 
among the green-house plants. 

As, in the course of the tasting, I had taken to the 
H2 



178 European Vineyakds. 

quantity of two or three glasses, or maybe more, it 
is proper I should say something of the effects of 
those high Johannisbergers. 

To begin, the first effect was the same as poor 
Proserpine felt when, having tasted the juice of 
pomegranates grown in Pluto's dominions, she want- 
ed to live there through all eternity. So felt I, in 
those lower regions of Johannisberg. After partak- 
ing of the charmed fruit, I was spell-boimd, and tore 
myself not easily away. 

Coffee excites the brain, and tea the liver, with an 
unbalanced action. Hasheesh and opium are liars 
which cheat the senses with- unreal objects, bom of 
the vapors of the brain they disorder. But wine acts 
honestly on the real, and, wliile exalting the action of 
every part within us, and the effect of every object 
without us, works only with the actual and the true. 
Accordingly, as I drove down hill, the working of the 
spell that lay in the kiss upon my lips the cellar's 
bride gave glorified all the wide Rhineland, already 
glorious with the sunset, gving to the waters a bright- 
er sparkle, and deepening the purple of the shadow}' 
hills. By the same power, every event since the 
morning came over the mind again and again, with 
repeated titillations of memory's chord, multipljdng 
that one delightful day into many. I was contented 



The Rhine and Johannisbekg. 179 

with all things and all events, for all had treated me 
well. The river and the hills had pleased me ; the 
air and skies had been amiable ; the people I had 
met had been polite and kind ; and I realized most 
vividly — what was true most really-^that the heav- 
ens were good, and the earth was good, and the fruits 
of it passing description — that this was the best pos- 
sible of worlds, and the queen of its queens the 
Princess Metternich. 



180 EuKopEAN Vineyards. 



A 



CHAPTEK XII. 

SWISS VINEYABDS. 

TKAKSIT across Germany to Salzburg by rail, 
and thence through the Alps of the Salzkam- 
mergut, a two days' carriage drive, brought me to 
Bad-Gastein, without any thing occurring by the 
way with a bearing on the object of this book, un- 
less it be that the more I saw of wine-drinking South 
Germany, the more was I charmed with the manners 
of the people. In respect to manners, which are the 
flower and fragrance of benevolence, the Austrian 
Germans are, in my opinion, no way behind the 
French. Indeed, what I saw of Austria made me 
more than ever a believer in the theory of Babrius 
concerning the influence of wine upon civilization. 
Like the French, they have exquisite taste. When 
they shall have become fully possessed of themselves, 
as will soon happen, through the development of free- 
dom under the rule of Yan Beust, great things may 
be expected of the Austrians. 



Swiss Yineyaeds, 181 

That great mau was at Gastein while I was there, 
and the daily sight of him was good for the eyes. 
Let me predict he will do more for his people by 
working on their better nature than his now triumph- 
ant rival, Bismarck, ever can for his through appeals 
to their bad passions, party violence, and the use of 
force. 

But what has all this to do with white wine or red ? 
Very little, I confess. 

The tour I afterward took in Switzerland made 
me, of course, famiHar with Swiss "sdneyards, for ev- 
ery canton but two contains them. The last week of 
September and the first of October I spent at Glion, 
sur Montr eux, in the heart of the vine region of 
Lake Geneva, the most important of all. In that 
lovely cove, formed by the head of the lake, there 
are a hundred hotels and boarding-houses, where in- 
valids resort in the autumn to cure themselves by 
eating grapes "by the quantity." I tasted often of 
the best in the neighborhood, and found them nei- 
ther sweet nor well-flavored. 

I have not yet heard of the grape-cure in Amer- 
ica; but Catawbas will cure, though. They will 
cure, for instance, summer complaint and autumnal 
dysentery, and, if Liebig is right, will also eradicate 
gout and calculus — all by virtue of the tartar they 



182 European Vineyards. 

contain, to say nothing of what their other constitu- 
ents may be good for. 

I could account for the insipidity of the Yaudois 
grapes, as well as the poor reputation of the wine 
made from them, when I learned that by dint of 
heavy manuring the vine-dressers of the Canton Vaud 
had carried the yearly average yield per acre up to 
about a thousand gallons. They are most thorough- 
going cultivators, and no doubt understand their own 
interest in pushing their vines as they do. At the 
same time, they produce two or three qualities of 
good repute. The soil about Montreux is basaltic, 
and so is that of a large portion of the region about 
the lake. On the way northward from thel'e, along 
the western border of Switzerland, where the vine 
abounds, the formation is almost wholly of a soft, 
light gray sandstone. Here we have basalt and 
sandstone in abundance, but no very good wine. 
But the sandstone is not red, and is probably with- 
out admixture of iron ; nor could I see that it was 
shaly at all. 



jDukkheim. las 



CHAPTER XIII. 

DUEKHEIM. 

f~\^ niy way to a second visit among the vine- 
^-^ yards of the Rhine, I found myself, on the 12th 
of October, at Freibm-g, in Breisgau, in the upper 
valley of that river. There is a great hill back of 
the town where wine of some repute is grown, but 
there the vintage had not yet begun. Li the low 
grounds it was well advanced. The first sight I met, 
in walking among these last, was a boy standing, or 
rather dancing, in a tubful of grapes, which rested 
on an upright cask with the head out, into which the 
juice flowed fi-om numerous auger-holes in the bot- 
tom of the tub. There was also a trap in the same 
bottom, which was lifted from time to time to let 
the crushed remainder of skins, seeds, stems, etc., 
fall through. This seemed to be the fashion of the 
neighborhood, and an old fashion it was too, having 
been brought from Persia, whence came to Europe 
(as is generally believed) the grape and the art of 
-making wine, and where, to this day, they express 



184 European Vineyards. 

the juice in the above manner. The grapes were 
white. They were to be allowed a twenty -four 
hours' fermentation on the skins after crushing, in 
order to improve the bouquet, it is said, and then 
put under the press. 

Keeping do^^oi the valley, I arrived at Durkheim, 
in Rhenish Bavaria, a central point in the important 
vine region which includes the towns of Forst and 
Deidesheim. Though it was already the middle of 
October, vintage had not yet begun, and I learned, 
what I ought to have known before, that of late 
years they let the fruit hang on the stem till almost 
ready to fall. The hotel was a coarse old concern, 
whose rooms were either comfortless from absence 
of fire, or uncomfortable from the presence of stoves 
and the smoke-nuisance. Many of the guests were 
come to eat grapes as medicine, like those I had just 
left on Lake Geneva. But the Durkheim medicine 
was not by any means so bad to take as was that of 
the other place. In fact, the grapes were excellent, 
and by far the best I found in Europe. 

I suppose Brillat Savarin, were he ahve, would ob- 
ject to take this grape-medicine ; for once, when some 
one offered him grapes to eat, he declined, saying, 

" Je ne prends pas mon vin en pillules" (I don't 
take my Avine in pills). 



D U K K H li I M. 185 

There are hills in the neighborhood of Durkheim, 
but the soil to which the characteristic qiiahty and 
value of its wines and those of Forst and Deides- 
heim are due is found on the surface of a wide and 
level area of gravelly deposit, so permeable, and con- 
sequently so poor, that a soil has to be made for it, 
and kept continually renewed, by hauhng upon it 
basaltic earth and clay, together with large quanti- 
ties of cow mamu-e, which last the first two serve 
to retain, so it shall not be washed too freely through 
the sieve-hke foundation beneath. 

I found no difficulty in obtaining the guidance of 
a young gentleman, who was the son of a large pro- 
proprietor, and who was good enough to devote the 
whole day to me. Beyond question, the Rhenish 
Bavarians are the first vine-dressers of the Avorld. 
Their vines are wide-spaced enough for plowing, yet 
all is done by hand; and how often in a season, 
think you, do those sturdy fellows stir the soil ? Nine 
and ten times ! On each acre they yearly bestow a 
hundred and forty days of hard labor. From dis- 
tances of many miles they haul basaltic earth in such 
quantities as in time visibly to elevate the surface 
of the vineyards above surrounding fields. To this 
earth they seemed to attach more value than I did, 
after what I had seen on Lake Geneva. Its good 



186 European Vineyards. 

properties seemed only to be manifest when it was 
spread on other ground, and may have consisted 
merely in the attraction its dark color has for the 
sun's rays and its retentiveness of manure. 

The wines thus produced are uncommonly fine, 
and mostly rich in bouquet — very different from 
what could be expected with such heavy manuring 
bestowed on a clayey or even a basalt soil. 

The vines are of good stature, and trained on wire 
trellis. The oidium is not an uncommon visitor, but 
is successfully met with sulphur treatment. Observ- 
ing a sprinkling of whitewash on the vine -leaves 
along the outer border, and recalling the verdigris 
sprinkling noticed in Medoc, I asked the reason of it, 
but could get none better than that it rendered the 
ripening fruit unattractive — not to birds, but to boys. 

In the cellar of the father of yomig I saw 

the casks had received a good coat of coal tar, the 
object being, they said, to retain the freshness of the 
wine as early bottling will do. I think it was but 
an experiment, and not an estabhshed usage. It 
would certainly need to be very carefully done, and 
the odor should be well dried away before putting 
the casks in use. 

Quitting the Ehine by the- valley of the Maine, I 
had a glimpse of the vineyards producing the cele- 



DUKKHEIM. 187 

brated Stein wine, which they put up in big-bellied 
bottles that look generous and honest, and are so, 
certainly, in comparison with the slim, long-necked 
flasks we cheat with at home, and yet they are them- 
selves very short -comers in contrast with the full 
quart flasks sometimes seen in France, which last, I 
hope, will long be preserved as monuments of de- 
parted honesty. 

Bow pruning seems to be a favorite in Rhenish 
Germany. Probably the strong manuring the vines 
receive in that country enables them to bear what it 
is insisted would be ruinous in France. And it may 
be that manm-e can be more freely used, without in- 
jury to the vine, on the extremely porous, gravelly 
plains, or well -drained, terraced mountain sides of 
the Lower Rhine, than on French soils. Guyot, we 
have seen, accompanies his recommendation of long 
pruning with the requirement of high manuring. 

Undoubtedly the tendency in our day is to culti- 
vate for quantity rather than quality, just as in cook- 
ery it is to sacrifice taste to convenience or economy. 
We invent no new dishes, but only quick, cheap, and 
easy ways of spoiling old ones. Modern improve- 
ments in the kitchen consist in neutralizing the flavor 
of our vegetables by boihng them with soda ; raising 
bread with chemicals instead of yeast, and baking it 



188 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

with a cast-iron heat instead of the gentler radiation 
of a clay surface ; and as to joints and poultry, in 
thrusting them into the oven with a dripping-pan 
full of water, and there " soddening with water," 
against the express prohibition of the Bible, instead 
of " roasting with fire," as it expressly commands. 
And Science and Invention are spoiling our dinnei's 
for us as well as our wines. 



Vienna, and Beek, and Tokay. 189 



CHAPTER XIV. 

VIENNA, AND BEER, AND TOKAY. 

'TTIE^NTS'A, where I remained thi-ee weeks, beats 
' the world, and even Paris, for bread, beer, and 
boots. I found the best beer, not where the Strans- 
ches perform, but in a cellar near the Opera-M)use, 
where, thirty feet under ground, a deal of deep drink- 
ing is done, and the new luxmy of political discus- 
sion enjoyed. 

If, as wise Babrius tells us, every drink has its pe- 
culiar effect, that of beer must be metaphysical, dis- 
putatious, over-refining. It must be so, for something 
has split German philosophy into half hairs, and Ger- 
man nationality into a hundred or more states. It 
could not have been wine, which is a unifier ; so it 
must have been beer. All the world knows that 
German freedom and unity could have been secured 
in 1848 if the Frankfort Convention had not lost its 
head in a fog of abstractions, and spent six months 
over a Bill of Rights preliminary to a Constitution, al- 
lowing the kings to take courage, gather strength, 



190 European Vineyards. 

and drive the abstractionists out of the windows by 
the practical pricking of bayonets behind, in the thir- 
teenth month of their incubation. 

A few years ago, while yet the Glossners brewed 
beer as good as the best at their cellar in Cincinnati, 
I happened to be conversing there with some intelli- 
gent Germans — a judge, a lawyer, and an editor — 
about free trade and protection. They talked ra- 
tionally enough till the question arose, in the course 
of the discussion — but how, I can't imagine — wheth- 
er li^t was positive and darkness negative, or wheth- 
er it was the reverse. With an apology to me, they 
soon plmiged into veiy excited Geitnan talk, re- 
plenishing their glasses frequently. After each had 
drunk his quart, I rose to take leave, but they beg- 
ged me to remain, promising they would soon con- 
clude their metaphysics, and return to common sense 
and the English language. 

" But what have light and darkness to do with dry 
goods, hardware, and groceries, and their importa- 
tion V I asked. 

They assured me they could not possibly "get on 
with the main question until the other was settled, 
and at it again they went. I left them at the end 
of another quart, wrangling as positively and nega- 
tiveh^ as in the beginning. 



Vienna, and Beer, and Tokay. 191 

WMle at Yienna I had an* interview with Count 
Henri Zechy (cousin of the Count Zechy I met at 
Johannisberg), to whom I had been recommended 
to apply as one of the best-informed of the Hunga- 
rian wine - growers, and whom, when he called, I 
recognized as one of the Austrian commissioners at 
the Paris Exhibition, where he was, I think, chief of 
a group. He resides near Odenburg, in the north- 
ern part of Hmigary, which is in the region where 
Tokay wine is made. 

He told me they made all their good wines from 
soils good for nothing else. Little manure is used 
except in layering, which they practice to supply 
failm'es. They think it injures the quality. On 
steep hill-sides they heap up ridges and mounds to 
retard the running away of the rains, thus retaining 
enough to supply the roots, and, at the same time, 
preventing loss by washing. Cultivation, always by 
hand, is done three times in a season. In the Tokay 
region and other northern \ane districts they co^^er 
up in winter by laying the vines on the groimd, and 
then spreading straw over them, and afterward earth 
over the straw. 

No o'idium is known in Hungary, unless we may 
recognize as such something believed there to be the 
sting of an insect, which appears on the young grapes 



192 European Vineyards. 

when no larger than shot, arresting their growth, and 
causing them to fall off. 

The sweet wine known as Tokay can only be 
made when the season will permit more or less of 
the fi'uit to dry while yet hanging on the vines. If, 
during October, there are white frosts in the morn- 
ings, followed by clear and dry days, by the end of 
that month a portion of the berries will be found to 
have shriveled almost Hke a Malaga raisin, and be- 
come blue. In such case, the berries thus dried are 
carefuUy picked by themselves and reserved for a 
special treatment, the remainder being afterward 
gathered and pressed in the usual way. 

If the selected grapes are in sufficient quantity to ex- 
press any portion of juice by their mere weight when 
flung into a vat, such juice, called " essence," is kept 
by itself, and, when sold separately, brings extrava- 
gant prices. After this, or without it, if the quantity 
will not suffice for a flow of "essence," the dried 
grapes are put into sacks, and trodden with feet until 
reduced to a perfect marmalade. The juice flowing 
in the course of this operation being, like the " es- 
sence," kept apart, becomes Tokay w^ine of the first 
class. The " marmalade" remaining in the sacks is 
then pressed, to yield a Tokay of the second class. 
These products, namely, the essence, and first and 



Vienna, and Beer, and Tokay. 193 

second class wines, are afterward mixed with what is 
made from the fruit which did not dry, in the pro- 
portion of 1 to 10, 2 to 10, 3 to 10, or 4 to 10, and 
the qualities of sweet wine thus compounded are 
named, and rank accordingly. 

If the weather has not been propitious, of course 
there can be no sweet wine made. Birds are very 
troublesome, as might be expected, where such sweet 
fruit hangs out of doors so long, and have to be 
abated with guns, or frightened away with machines 
contrived to make a noise. 

Not over one per cent, of the wines of Hungary 
are sweet. To eke out this small supply, they make, 
at Odenburg, an imitation Tokay, by mashing up 
Greek currants and Malaga raisins, which is apt, 
however, to spoil within a year or two. 

A simpler way of making the Tokay would be to 
gather both the dried and undried fruit without cull- 
ing, and press all together, but this would not give 
such regular and certain results. Besides, without a 
thorough mashing in the bag, but little juice could be 
obtained from grapes so dry, as, mingled with the 
others, they would almost escape pressure. 

Count Zecliy told me the average of alcohol in 
Hungarian wines was about ten per cent. He re- 
marked that they contained a perceptible proportion 

I 



194 European Vineyards, 

of phosphorus. I have heard the Burgundy wmes also 
contain it, and to its presence is attributed, by some, 
the greater " headiness" of Burgundy as compared 
with Bordeaux, phosphorus — as it is known, having a 
close similarity to the substance of the brain. The 
grape soils of Hungary are of different kinds — lime- 
stone, chalk, sandstone, and basalt. I should call the 
weather Count Zechy described as being good for 
making sweet Tokay excellent for ripening persim- 
mons and pawpaws, and attribute as much virtue to 
the morning frosts as to the dry days. We have in 
many parts of America so much of this autumnal 
weather, I dare say we might try the making of 
sweet wines with good hopes of success. " Straw 
wines," as they are called, are made by drying the 
gathered grapes for several weeks under cover, usual- 
ly on straw, whence comes the name. I remember 
tasting some Catawba which had been made in this 
way by a gentleman who lived near Cincinnati, and 
that it was quite strong and Madeira-like, though not 
very sweet, and had kept well without having ever 
been below ground. But if it be possible for some 
of us in America to emulate the Tokay, it is certain 
none in Europe outside of the chosen region can do 
so, as many failures have proved. Something of the 
sort is made, however, at the Cape of Good Hope. 



Vienna, and Beer, and Tokay. 195 

The American palate would take kindly to a good 
sweet wine. In Champagne they know tliis, and 
sweeten wines for our market as they do no others 
except what are sent to Russia, remarking of the two 
great peoples in question, " Barbarians love sugaa'." 



196 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ITALY. 

/^VER the Somering, and into Italy, Venice, 
^-^ Florence, Rome, Naples, where Vesuvius, in a 
ferment, overflows with her ruddy and well-sulphm'- 
ed wines, and we come to Sorrento, on the south side 
of the Bay of Naples, even unto Villa Rispoli and 
its orange-groves, and there rest. 

I am sm-e the " Laclu'yma Christi" they gave at 
the villa was not genuine, for it was no great things, 
which every body says the true wine is. 

I had heard in France, and also encountered in my 
reading, so much in disparagement of ItaUan modes 
of vine-culture, that I hod really paid little attention 
to it until what I saw during a three weeks' sojourn 
at Sorrento made me think somewhat on the subject ; 
and reflecting that even in the lazy province of Na- 
ples all the people could not be drones, much less 
fools, and that men whose palates were discriminating 
and whose fingers were cunning in cookery must 



Italy. 197 

know how to make wine, I made a few turns in the 
vineyards of the neighborhood, and afterward spent 
an evening in conversing on the subject with my host, 
whom I invited to my room for that purpose. His 
description of the modes of culture in vogue about 
the Bay — of gathering, fermenting, and keeping — 
though not applicable, I think, in our own country, 
and so not worth detaihng here, seemed reasonable 
and proper enough. 

For the custom of liigh training, either on trees or 
trellis, he could give me no reason ; but he might 
have given this — that in so hot a climate, and on such 
rich, dark, volcanic soil, grapes grown on low-trained 
vines would either dry up to a raisin or fall off with- 
out ripening. NotAvithstanding all said against their 
methods, I think the Italians know what they are 
about ; and as to their keeping the w^ne in demi- 
johns and flasks, corked with olive oil floating in the 
neck, there may be good reasons for that too. An 
exceptional soil and climate may very well produce 
exceptional wanes, needing exceptional treatment. 

Going among the A^neyards near Sorrento, and 
noticing the vine-dressers at their work, I could see 
that they were careful and thorough in all they did. 
The trellis were very high, and were made by driv- 
ing tall stakes in the ground, and tying to tliem cross- 



198 European Vineyards. 

pieces of cane. Certainly the form was not con- 
trived to favor laziness. 

The ground was free of weeds. The space for 
admitting sim and air was about what it should be. 
The pruning was being carefully done, according to 
their system, whatever it was ; and by what right 
could I tell them it was all wrong ? 

They never vintage until after the autumnal rains 
have come to swell the fruit, giving for reason that 
the wine would spoil if they did. Tliis certainly 
would not be a reason in France, and yet it may be 
a good one in Southern Italy, for all that. 

I remember meeting, while in l^aples, a Pohsh 
lady who owned vineyards near Florence, and who 
told me she was determined to adopt the French sys- 
tem of training and pruning, notwithstanding her 
Italian neighbors warned her it would never do. 1 
remember, too, that a few days afterward, another 
lady told me her father, a Frenchman, had, in fact, 
tried the experiment on an Italian vineyard, with the 
loss of his vines as the result. No one would con- 
tend, I think, that the method, so successful in Cham- 
pagne, of crowding 25,000 plants within the com- 
pass of an acre, could possibly do on the warm, rich 
soil of Naples. 

I had heard of the wine of the island of Capri 



Italy. 199 

as excellent, and of the blue grotto there as beauti- 
ful, so sailed over to it one day. But the high sea 
kept us out of the grotto, and the wine was not good, 
but bad, from the effects of the sulphur cure, they 
said. There is a remedy for the bad effect in ques- 
tion, which is itself a sulphur cure, and which may 
not yet be as well known in Italy as it is in France. 
At any rate, the " lazy ISTeapohtans" have done what 
no Americans have yet had the patience to do — they 
have cm-ed the oidium. 

We remained two days at Capri, where we en- 
joyed the society of some English artists, who had 
gone there to paint from living models, whose per- 
fection of form was beyond any thing* to be found 
in England — at reasonable rates. The hotel had been 
a monastery once, which accounts for the excellence 
of the wine formerly grown on the island. The prog- 
ress of the age has expelled the monks, and the prog- 
ress of the oidium has spoiled the wine — a judgment, 
no doubt. 

Here comes the question. Were those ages during 
which monasteries flourished the most, dark ages be- 
cause good and learned men secluded themselves 
from the world, hiding in cloisters that wisdom which 
should have enlightened it, and in cellars the bottled- 
up quintessence of civilization wliich sliould have re- 



200 European Vineyards. 

lined it ? or was it because of the dark and evil times 
mild and good men were forced to shelter themselves 
in cells, and keep their liquor under lock and kej ? 

However it may be, those cowled, good fellows 
had a good time of it. Safe and sure, tranquil and 
content, they fermented good wine, and brewed bad 
metaphysics ; the wine they kept to themselves, but 
the metaphysics they let loose in the world to bother 
mankind, and deepen still more the darkness of the 
ages. 

Soon after leaving Capri, I spent several weeks at 
the neighboring island of Ischia. At both places the 
vine-culture was substantially the same as at Sorren- 
to, and at both places they cured oidium unf aihngly. 

At Rome, a gentleman, whose father was a large 
owner of vineyards, gave me several kinds of wine 
to taste. All were decidedly pleasant, and the Ali- 
atico delicious, but most of them having any age 
were more or less pricked. This gentleman, in giv- 
ing some details of their modes of cultivation in the 
Roman territory, remarked that, for heavy work — 
trenching three feet deep, for instance— the most re- 
liable laborers were from the province of Naples, de- 
scribing them as strong, willing, and of excellent 
conduct. 

From Rome I traveled northward into Tuscany, 



Italy. 201 

where cultivation in all branches is thorough, system- 
atic, and careful, and there I found no vines trained 
either on stake or trellis ; all vrere clambering in 
tree-tops. Twenty-five feet was usually the distance 
between the trees on level groimd, and fifteen feet 
on hills. Two or three vines were planted at the foot 
of each tree. This system is not confined to Italy 
alone ; it is practiced in portions of France also. In 
the north of Italy it is common to prune the trees, 
so as to let in air and sunshine, while in parts of 
the south care is taken to keep them shaded. We 
often hear of vines grown upon trees in om* own 
country, which, for some reason, escape disease, and 
from such facts an argviment is draw^n in favor of 
long and high training ; but the immimity is prob- 
ably due to the shelter from radiation which the fo- 
liage of the tree affords. M. Du Brieuil tells us ^^nes 
trained upon trees in France suffer more than those 
on stakes. I learned the same thing to be true of 
trellis-grown vines in Burgundy, We know that in 
Italy neither trees nor trellis avail aught, and we 
shall find that in Southern France the lowest vines 
are least afflicted, and the highest suffer the most. 

I left Italy by a wondrous road which skirts the 
Maritime Alps on one hand, and the Mediterranean 
on the other, and is called " Riviera" at one end, and 
12 



202 Eukopp:an Vineyakds. 

" Cornice" at the other, traveling in a carriage liired 
for the whole journey at Spezzia, where it begins. 

It is a journey of six clays, but so varied and so 
beautiful in all its ups and downs, ins and outs, that 
when it ends one is tempted to turn about and go 
back over it again. Now we descended to the very 
edge of the sea, and traveled for long reaches on its 
pebbly or sandy beach ; now, mounting high, were 
whirled at a gallop along the verge of a precipice ; 
now we rounded a rocky cape, on whose bleak sides 
no plant could stand, and now turned into a cove lux- 
uriant with olive-trees and vines. Those who love 
the blue Mediterranean may thus, curving about her 
shores, embrace her, as it were, in a delightful week 
of prolonged leave-taking, and part from her at last 
more in love than ever. For nearly the whole dis- 
tance the abrupt sides of the mountains were ter- 
raced with walls of stone, almost from foot to crown, 
and the soil thus secured planted in vineyards and 
olive-orchards. Much as we praise the Hollanders 
for building the dikes which keep back the sea from 
coming in upon their lands, the Italians deserve 
scarcely less credit for those dikes of stone which 
keep theirs fi'om tumbling down into the water. As 
to the terrace-work of the Ehinelanders, it is as noth- 
ing in comparison. 



The South of France. 20'6 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

THE SOUTH OF FEANCE. 

A T Mce I entered on the great vine-country of 
-*- ■*- Southern France, where an enormous quantity 
of common, and a moderate quantity of superior 
wines are produced. In this region — namely, at 
Nice, Msmes, Montpellier, Cette, and other places — I 
remained about six weeks, with two subjects of in- 
quiry in view — one, the vine disease, and the other, 
training en souche. What I learned on these points 
elsewhere I have mainly reserved for this place in 
my book, because in Southern France it is that the 
disease has been the mpst virulent and been most 
triumphantly subdued, and there it is that fi-om time 
immemorial all the vines have been kept en^ouche 
hasse (on low stocks). 

The vine region in question extends from Nice in 
the east to Leucate in the west, and lies mostly be- 
tween the 43d and 44th degrees of latitude, though 
extending as far dowij. as below the 43d degree on the 



204 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

western wing, and, where the valley of the Rhone is 
included, going nearly as far northward as the 45th. 
It reaches from the Alps to the Pyrenees, and in- 
cludes the entire French Mediterranean coast. It is 
sheltered from the winds of winter by a line of 
mountains that bound its whole northern border, 
and from whose bases the whole surface slopes grad- 
ually down to the shores of the sea. Composed of 
portions of ancient Languedoc and Provence, it in- 
cludes the present departments of Drome, Ard^che, 
Yauclnse, Basses-Alps, Yar, Bouches-du-Rhone, Gard, 
Herault, Aude, and Pyrenees-Orientales. Of its en- 
tire tillable surface, fully one fourth is in vines — 
namely, a million and a half of acres, and the cul- 
ture is continually extending. 

The formation is generally limestone. The soils 
are various. On the poor slopes at the base of the 
mountains very superior wine is grown. Below 
them, at different stages of. elevation, but mostly of 
level or slightly-inclined surface, are strong, but not 
over-rich soils, clayey, limy, and sandy in different 
proportions, capable of yielding large crops of strong, 
sound wine, which sells, when new, at from ten to 
twenty-five cents a gallon. Here and there on the 
level ground are found pebbly deposits whose pro- 
duct, like that of the poor hill-sides, is of a high or- 



The South of France. 205 

der. Finally, the rich alluvial borders of the rivers 
have been known to produce, per acre, in a favorable 
season, as much as 4000 gallons of weak wine, con- 
taining only six per cent, of alcohol, formerly des- 
tined for the still, but of late years used to compound 
with other sorts in making cheap wines of commerce. 

Observations taken at Montpellier show the cli- 
mate of the region I am trying to describe to be 
marked by strong peculiarities. The mercury rises 
above 86° Fahrenlieit, on an average, 34 times in a 
year. There are, in a year, 174 fair days (at Paris 
there are only 56). The mean number of rainy days 
in a year is 81. The yearly rain-fall averages 924 
milhmetres, about 36 inches. Rain often comes in 
torrents, as it does in America, but does not any 
where else in France. But little rain usually falls 
between the middle of June and the middle of Octo- 
ber, an advantage which is somewhat compensated 
for by the heavy rains in the last half of October. 

For the reason that the large average rain-fall of 
36 inches is poured down in comparatively few rainy 
days, and the farther one that the prevailing winds 
are mostly violent and drying, the chmate is a very 
dry one. 

Although the mountains on the north are a shel- 
ter against cold winds coming from beyond them, 



206 European Vineyards. 

they themselves give forth the frequent, sudden, vio- 
lent, persistent, and biting cold " Tnistralir 

Thus we find in the south of France intense sum- 
mer heat, sudden and rude changes of temperature, 
high winds, heavy rains, and great dryness of amos- 
phere, making up a climate' very much resembling 
our ovm, and very little resembling that of any other 
part of France or of Germany. 

When I first visited Languedoc, all its broad fields 
were in the plenitude of their autumnal array, the 
vines wearing their green, their purple, and their 
pearls displayed on outspreading and low-trailing 
branches, as if each one were a belle or a bay-tree. 
The next time I saw them, which was in March, and 
after winter-prmiing, nothing met the eye but little, 
low brown stocks ten inches high, with all their 
branches cropped to two or three inches. Crinoline 
had given place to fact. 

THE Oi'DIUM. 

Maybe many of my readers will think the pages 
given to this subject contain nothing important for 
them to know. Let them not be too sure of this. 
There may be regions in America, as there are in 
Europe, where the scourge has not yet come, and may 
never come, but such will be exceptional, and we can 



The South of France. 207 

not yet know them. Cold latitudes are not propitious 
to the growth of the parasitic plant we call oidium,. 
and accordingly we find the more northern limits of 
om' vine zone have thus far been most fi*ee from it. 
The disease has more than one foraa, and has been 
often mistaken for a mere leaf -blight by those who 
think themselves far beyond reach of the oidium. 
New vines are generally strong enough to fling off 
all ailments which beset them for the first few years 
after they come into bearing. During those years 
they will commonly thrive and produce well, so that 
results obtained from such often lead us into error as 
to the value of soils, varieties, and modes of cultiva- 
tion, as Mr. Sanders very well remarks in one of his 
late publications. 

I have three vineyards of Catawbas which came 
into bearing in 1860, and continued to do well and 
showed no sign of disease until 1864, when the dis- 
ease destroyed about one tenth of their fruit. The 
next year there was a clean sweep, and the next, and 
next. 

As with new plantations, so it is with new varie- 
ties. The Norton's Virginia Seedling, the Concord, 
and the Ives Seedling are the three which have been 
most confidently relied on and most loudly praised 
for their invulnerability. My own ISTortons, that had 



208 European Vineyards. 

remained safe and sound since I first planted them 
in 1857, had the disease last year (1868), not merely 
in the form of " gray rot," but also in that of " red- 
leaf^'' the most terrible of all its manifestations. In 
the month of September of that same 1868, 1 saw, in 
a four-year old vineyard at M' Arthur, Yinton County, 
Ohio, as pretty a rotting going on as one who had 
foretold it would wish to see, while close beside was 
a vineyard of three-year old plants loaded with fruit 
and in perfect health. The same season, the Con- 
cords of one of my neighbors on the banks of the 
Ohio suffered badly and for the first time. Then, for 
the Ives, what meeting of the Cincinnati Horticul- 
tural Society or Wine-growers' Association has there 
been since August, 1868, when Mr. Howarth has not 
risen in his place to declare that it does rot, and offer 
to prove it ? The Dianas, Rogers l^o. 15, and other 
Rogers plants, have also given way before the ad- 
vancing pest, and the Delaware too. 

The Catawba, that has been made a scapegoat and 
abandoned as hopelessly doomed, is, in fact, remark- 
ably hardy in resisting the disease. This has been 
repeatedly noted in France, where it is grown ex- 
perimentally. On the Lake islands and Lake shore 
in Ohio it withstood thie invasion year after year, and 
fortunes were made from its fruit before it sue- 



The South of France. 209 

cumbed. If their Concords or Ives's hold out as long, 
I shall be surprised. In my opinion, the Catawba is 
better proof against the attempts of the destroyer 
than almost any variety we have while, of those 
whose hardiness so many have been willing to vouch 
for, the toughest can only hope to be reserved for the 
honor of being last devoured. 

It better behooves our vine -dressers to examine 
into the disease, learn the remedy, and prepare to ap- 
ply it, than hug themselves in an illusory security, or 
fly in a panic from one variety to another, or from 
one place to another. But mildew, rot, and red-leaf 
— in other words, oidium — can be cured and kept 
down. It has been done in Europe, where its march 
was far more rapid and sweeping than here, and here 
we can do it too. The evening after I arrived in 
Nice I bought the pamphlet of Mr. H. Mares, whom 
I have already mentioned as ha^vdng received, at the 
distribution of prizes at the Paris Exliibition, a med- 
al and a smile. I took the brochure home, and did 
not sleep till I had read it through. Here it is, and 
the reader must read it too, every word of it, that he 
may the better understand what is to follow it. 



MANUAL 

FOR THE 

SULPHURING OF DISEASED VINES, 

AXD 

RESULTS. 



By H. H. Makes, Montpellieb. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Explanation of the Figures of the Plate 214 

Preface to the Third Edition .* 21T 

Mantjal foe the Sttlphcking of Diseased Vines, and Rebitlts. 

Use of Sulphur— its Effects 220 

Development of the Vine Disease 226 

Characteristics of the Vine Disease 228 

The Oidium Tuckeri 230 

Different Opinions on the Vine Disease 234 

Conditions to fulfill in order to combat the Disease 236 

Properties of Sulphur 238 

Action of Sulphur on the Oidium 239 

Sulphuring Diseased Vines 242 

Mode of scattering Sulphur on the Vines — Instruments most suitable for 

that purpose 247 

Concerning the Epoch when Sulphur should be applied 251 

Sulphuring Carignans 284 

" Aramons 257 

" Alicantes, Aspirans, etc 259 

•' Terrets 260 

Eougeau of Terrets 261 

Vines Sulphured the preceding Year 264 

Precepts for applying Sulphur 266 

Of the quantity of Sulphur necessary. : 270 

Of the Vegetation of Sulphured Vines 271 

Review of Chapters relating to the use of Sulphur and its Action on the 

Vines 275 

Objections against using Sulphur 277 



EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES OF THE 
PLATE. 

Fig, 1. Reproductive spoi'e or germ of the O'id'mm Tuckeri, largely 
magnified. 

Fiff. 2. Oidium Tuckeri, largely magnified, m, m, m. Creeping fil- 
aments, or mycelium, c, c. '■'■ Crampons" (clamps, anchors) of the 
mycelium, t, t, t. ^^ Tigelles," or erect filaments bearing the spores 
placed end to end. s, s, s. Spores on the " Tigelles." 

Fig. 3. The Oidium Tuckeri in full vegetation on the skin of a 
grape, appearing to the naked eye as merely a white efflorescence. 

Fig, 4. Spore of the Oidium Tuckeri beginning to germinate. 

Fig. 5. Fragment of the skin attacked by Oidium, on which flour 
of sulphur has been scattered. /, f, f. Grains of flour of sulphur. 

Fig. 6. m, »n, m. Fragments of mycelium broken and deformed. 
s, s, s, Spores shrunk and distorted. The greater part have disap- 
peared ; only a small number are seen. 

Fig, 7. Flour of sulphur, magnified. 

Fig, 8. Fine sleet of sulphur, largely magnified. 

Fig. 10. Triturated sulphur reduced to an impalpable powder, mag- 
nified to the same degree as the flour of sulphur in Fig. 7. Common 
triturated sulphur has nearly the same forms, but the fragments are 
much more voluminous. 

Fig. 11. The Vergnes Bellows, t. Nozzle by which the air enters 
and is blown out again, charged with the sulphur-dust. m. Wire 
gauze with large meshes to sift the sulphur, c. Cavity of the bel- 
lows, serving as reservoir for the sulphur, b. Stopper to the orifice 
in the upper wood, by which the sulphm- is introduced. 

Fig. 12. Box with a tuft. 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 

When the fii'st edition of this tract was published, 
in the month of May, 1856, sulphur had been em- 
ployed against the vine malady by only a small mma- 
ber of \dne-dressers, the others doubting or contest- 
ing its efficacy. To-day it is no longer so ; sulphur- 
ing of diseased vines is generally adopted in prac- 
tice. Thus it enters on a new phase, as any other 
fact does that has been subjected to rational observa- 
tion, and borne the tests of criticism and experience. 

To have thus quickly overcome the general resist- 
ance which new processes always encounter before 
being adopted in practice, it was necessary, on the 
one hand, that the knowledge of good methods should 
be diffused, in order that the operation should not be 
left to the hazard of empirical processes ; and, on the 
other hand, that the reappearance and intensity of 
the disease should be general in the south of France, 
and put every where in evidence through all that re- 
gion the enormous differences between the results 
given by vines methodically sulphured and those 
which were not. 

K 



218 European Vineyards. 

The public experiments that the Agricultural So- 
ciety of the Department of the Herault made in sul- 
phuring vines in 1856 have demonstrated the exact- 
itude of the principles I have indicated. The con- 
tinuity of rains, which, by retarding the warming of 
the soil by the atmosphere, retarded also the general 
invasion of the disease, has proved how insufficient 
were the pretended preventive sulphurings, as well as 
how costly and dangerous the employment of empir- 
ical methods could become. I have therefore be- 
lieved it would be useful to have printed a new edi- 
tion of these instructions on the sulphuring of vines. 
Moreover, no other practical method has yet been dis- 
covered to supersede the use of sulphur, and to it 
must we still have recourse to defend our vines from 
the attacks of the oidium. 

This little work, having no other object than to 
throw light on the practice of sulphuring vines, can 
not be considered as a treatise on the ^dne-disease. 
As regards that, I have entered into the details and 
developments belonging to the subject in my "Me- 
moire sur la maladie de la vigne :" it can not find 
place in this pamphlet, where all is subordinated to 
the practical. If I have devoted a few pages to giv- 
ing the ideas wliich are now entertained concerning 
the causes of the disease, it is simply to facilitate a 



Preface. 219 

comprehension of the means described, and of the 
method which should be followed in applying the sul- 
phur understandingly and economically. We know, 
moreover, that it is useful to familiarize ourselves 
with new things, and to try and comprehend matters 
which must frequently recur, as the sulphuring of the 
vine must still continue to do, to the greater part of 
our vine-dressers. 

The importance which the sale of powdered sul- 
phur has attained in the vine-regions of the south of 
France has determined me to devote a whole chap- 
ter to the examination of those various powders sold 
under the names of flour of sulphur and ground (or 
triturated) sulphur, according to their origin — to the 
study of the conditions they must fulfill, and to the 
proper means for ascertaining their degrees of purity 
and fineness. I have also insisted, with more detail 
than before, on the effects which sulphur in powder 
produces on the vegetation of the vine and a large 
number of other cultivated plants. 

The means which I describe in this work have all 
been subjected to the provings of a daily experience, 
from which I have each year obtained the most com- 
plete and satisfactory results. I hope the cultivator 
will find in the whole a guide to show him a method 
of operation at the same time easy and sure, and to 



220 European Vineyards. 

give him useful indications in every contingency 
which may arise. This is the end I have striven to 
obtain, and I shall be happy to have succeeded. 



MANUAL FOR THE SULPHUEING OF DIS- 
EASED YINES, AND RESULTS. 

THE EMPLOYMENT OF SULPHTJE, AND ITS EFFECTS. 

The disease of the vine was for the first time ob- 
served during the year 1845, on some stocks grown on 
trellis in a hot-house at Margate, a sea-port in the 
southeast of England. It is, therefore, only thirteen 
years that its appearance has been well authenticated. 

It is in vain that the researches of the learned have 
sought a description or a designation of that strange 
malady in the texts of ancient authors, especially in 
those of Theophrastus and Pliny.* Tlie reading of 
those texts, on the contrary, shows that the authors 
treated only of particular ailments to which vines 

* Theophrastus lived in Greece about three centuries before Christ. 
Pliny lived in Italy in the first century. ^ 

1 1 Bee, however, that Mr. Strong, in his work on the grape, claims to have 
found a description of the disease in the writings of Theophrastus, and an 
account of its nature in those of Felix Fontana, who wrote ahout a liuudred 
years ago. 



SULPHUKING OF DISEASED ViNES. 221 

were subject in tlie climates they inhabited, or in 
analogous ones ; for instance, the " charbon," which 
causes a general falling ofE of the blossom (described 
by MM. Esprit Fabre and Dunal under the name of 
anthraconose), and the scalding of the grapes by the 
burning heat of the August sun. Nothing authorizes 
us to infer that those authors wanted to describe the 
disease now causing so much injury in our vines. 
Researches in modern authors have been no less 
barren. 

The characteristics of the ^^ne-disease are so clear- 
ly and sharply definable, and every where present 
themselves with such a uniformity, that one could 
never mistake a description of it. Then, again, its 
ravages have been so great that it would in any age 
have fixed the attention of historians, of naturalists, 
and agriculturists. We should have found, then, in 
the authors of former centuries, positive records of a 
fact of such high importance, if it had presented it- 
self. Thus we are authorized at the present time in 
considering the disease of the vine as a fact wholly 
new, whose obstinacy and extent call for the serious 
attention of agriculturists and naturalists. 

Issuing from the hot-houses of England, the dis- 
ease has little by little invaded the whole European 
Continent where the \'ine is cultivated, as well as 



222 European Vineyards. 

the basin of the Mediterranean and the isles of the 
ocean. It was in 1S51 that its appearance was posi- 
tively known in the Department of the Heranlt, and 
the greater part of the French and Italian shores of 
the Mediterranean. Since then it has not ceased to 
propagate itself and work the greatest ravages. 

Spain and Portugal, invaded one or two years aft- 
er the eastern vineyards of Southern France and of 
Italy, are to-day just as badly treated. 

In 1856 the product of the French vines was gen- 
erally bad. In the centre and the north there was, 
at the same time, a notable decrease of the disease, 
but in the south it again came forth with disastrous 
power. 

In 1857 the disease was general in all the south ; 
but, energetically combated with sulphur in sc great- 
number of localities, did not prove so disastrous as 
in the years preceding. The malady also continued 
to decrease in the centre and north under influences 
favorable to the vegetation and fructification of the 
vine. Possibly, then, the period of decrease in the 
disease, so desirable for vine-dressers, had arrived; 
but the experience of 1857 again too well demon- 
strated the superiority of the products of the sul- 
phured \ine&, both in quantity and quality, for it to 
be yet prudent to leave the ^^nes to themselves. The 



SULPHL'BING OF D I S E A 8 ED V IN E S. 223 

persistence of the disease in vineyards where it has 
been the most efficiently combated is a fact at this 
day so well established, that we should continually 
be on our guard against it. The sure and practica- 
ble means which we possess of combating this disas- 
trous scourge must still be called into use, and still 
continue to confer on ^dne-growing countries benefits 
whose value will augment with the increased care 
bestowed. Those means are, in their employment, 
based on the methodical application of sulphur in 
powder, to wliich we owe, up to the present time, the 
most undoubted success. 

The idea of applying sulphur to the cure of the 
vine-disease is old ; it dates almost fi-om the appear- 
ance of the disease, for it was proposed by an En- 
gHsh gardener of Leyton, Mr. Kyle, in 1846, and by 
Mr. Tucker, the first observer of the oidium, who 
combined sulphur mth lime ; but it received then 
little attention. 

It is in France that this- application of sulphur has 
been really studied and propagated. Thus, in 1850, 
M. Gontier, the able gardener of Montrouge, near 
Paris, obtained from it, in his grape -houses and 
gardens, excellent effects, and devised the use of the 
bellows to administer it, after ha\ang first moistened 
the branches and grapes. It was this last method of 



224 European Vineyaeds. 

application on branches and grapes moistened be- 
forehand that was practiced in some of the vine- 
yards of the Boi'delais and of the south as early as 
1853, and particularly by Count Duchatel and Doctor 
Turrel in 1851 and 1852, but it was under condi- 
tions as yet too embarrassing and costly for applica- 
tion on a large scale. 

In 1853 Mr. Rose Charmeux conceived the idea of 
scattering dry sulphur on the f ohage and on the dis- 
eased fruit. This idea rendered the use of sulphur 
practicable in large vineyards. It was published for 
the first time, with a report on the decisive results 
obtained at Thomery on 300 acres of vines, by the 
Imperial Society of Horticulture of Paris, at the end 
of 1853, and subsequently by M. Rendu, Inspector 
General of Agriculture, in the beginning of 1854 
(Report to the Minister of Agriculture). These doc- 
uments, which received an immense publicity by be- 
ing reproduced in all the journals, leave no uncer- 
tainty as to the value of dry-sulphuring \^nes. It 
was only after their publication that it was employed 
on the vines of the south in the year 1854, 

But to obtain in every case, from the use of dry 
sulphur, sure and complete results, certain determin- 
ate conditions must be complied with, which had not 
by any means been sufficiently described. It was 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 225 

for that reason that its employment, in the south 
above all, was followed now by failure and now by 
success, which left the question of sulphurization un- 
decided, and gave rise to the most opposing opinions. 

It needed, to decide this question, a more complete 
study of the disease itself and of the action the sul- 
phur has, whether on it or on the vine, and that, 
moreover, precept should be united to example, and 
the exactitude of scientific observations demonstrated 
by the practice and experience of several years, in 
vineyards of vast extent, and under the most varied 
circumstances, to insure a success that none could 
doubt of. 

This was the task I undertook to perform in the 
year 1855, at the time when the question of sulphur- 
ization was the most controverted, happy enough to 
obtain the encouragement of the Imperial and Cen- 
tral Society of Agriculture of Paris, and afterward 
that of the Society for the Encouragement of Na- 
tional Industry. Since then, experience has confirm- 
ed anew the results of my researches. 

But, before explaining the methods of operation 
which I have deduced from them, it is necessary to 
say a few words of the march of the disease, of its 
essential characteristics, and of the causes to which 
we should attribute it. We can afterward better ap- 



22G European Vineyards. 

predate the action of the agent to be employed 
against it. 

DEVELOPMENT . OF THE DISEASE OF THE VINE. 

The vine may be attacked by the disease at all 
epochs of its vegetation ; it only needs a series of hot 
days to begin for it to appear here and there on va- 
rieties particularly accessible to its ravages, the Oarig- 
nan and Picardan^ .for instance. If the season is 
cold and backward, the disease manifests itself later. 

Such developments so early in the season only oc- 
cur in plants already invaded during the preceding 
year, and belonging to varieties well known as being 
especially subject to the disease. Thus, as early as 
April, the carignan may show signs of it, but only 
partially, on a few buds, which will appear as if more 
or less powdered with flour, and which soon wither. 
On the other kinds it does not appear till later, ordi- 
narily in the month of May, and even then attacks 
only here and there a single bud. 

It spreads in proportion as the weather gets warm- 
er, and then its ravages take a general character, no 
longer limited to a few isolated stalks. Thus, at the 
time when wheat ripens, it is seen to break out on all 
the plants at once. The vines then take a peculiar 
yellow color, and if you closely examine their leaves 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. -227 

and friiit yon will find them covered with a white 
dust, or efflorescence of a peculiar musty odor, easy 
to recognize. The invasion becomes from this mo- 
ment general ; it extends over immense surfaces, over 
entire countries, advancing a few days swifter or 
slower according to the heat of the climate or of the 
exposures. 

This is at the beginning of the grain harvests, an 
epoch which in the climate of Montpellier varies from 
the 20th to the 30th of June ; it is also the close of 
the period of blossoming. The oidium from this time 
spreads every where and attacks by degrees every va- 
riety, enfeebling their vegetation and destroying their 
fruit during the heats of July and August. It is then 
only that the shoots become covered with black spots, 
that the leaves curl up and dr}^, that the grapes, at 
first powdered with white, become covered with brown 
spots, split, and dry np. Ravages of all kinds become 
evident to the eyes of all, and illusions and hopes 
founded on the vigor of the vegetation vanish before 
the reality. 

Such is the general course of the malady ; the in- 
jury it causes is ordinarily greater when a warm and 
dry summer succeeds to a rainy spring. 

Warm, stony, shallow soils are most often those 
where the ravages are greatest, because the disease 



'22ii European Vineyakds. 

makes its appearance there sooner than in soils that 
are deeper, and therefore slower to become heated. 

The dry mnds and the first heats of summer ordi- 
narily make it spread with marvelous rapidity. 

Vines on trellis and other high-trained idnes are 
more affected than ^dnes in souche. 

Certain varieties resist better than others the at- 
tacks of the disease, and such varieties are known 
and noted in every vineyard at the present time. 

Old vines suffer much more than young ones; 
their product becomes null. The old wood and 
branches for the most part die, and must be grafted 
or uprooted. 

Good cultivation does not keep away the disease, 
but gives the vine more power to resist it. 

It is the same as regards manuring; at the same 
time, when it heats the soil, it favors the precocious 
appearance of the disease, and renders it more dan- 
gerous ; in such case we must be ready to combat it 
energetically. 

CHARACTER OF THE VESTE DISEASE. 

Wherever the vine disease has been observed, it 
has been characterized by a little cryptogam or mush- 
room, named o'idium TucJceri, after Mr. Tucker, who 
first observed it. The appearance of this little mush- 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 229 

room, similar in the first clays of its development to 
a whitish mold, is, then, the fundamental character- 
istic of this disease. It can not be recognized on the 
diiferent parts of the plant except by the presence of 
the little mushroom, and, on the other hand, wherever 
this last is established on a vine, it is diseased ; so 
that the study of the disease itself and that of the 
oidium are inseparable, and the two are confounded 
the one with the other. 

It is only the different developments of the oidium 
that give to the disease its divers aspects, according 
to the epoch when it is examined and the degree of 
intensity it has acquired. 

Thus, as its seat is the epidermis (or outer skin) of 
all the green parts of the plant, we find the oidium 
on the shoots, on the leaves, and on the grapes — on 
all parts that are green, in a word, and direct obser- 
vation shows that it is by it they are being injured. 
The old wood, on the contrary, and the roots, on 
which no particular sickness is remarked, are not at- 
tacked by it. 

The yellow and dull aspect which the diseased 
vine takes in the beginning is a first symptom of the 
development of the oidium ; the white spots seen on 
shoots, leaves, and fruit signalize its presence and the 
stage of its very active vegetation; the characteristic 



230 European Yineyakds. 

musty odor which the vine exhales is nothing else 
than the oidium itself ; the gray color noticed on the 
parts attacked, after a while, is owing to the state of 
old age of the mushroom ; the black spots which ap- 
pear along the shoots, leaves, and grapes are the in- 
delible traces of alterations its presence on the sur- 
face has produced, and which remain after its death 
and disappearance. 

The stunting of the shoots and of the grapes, the 
curling up and premature fall of the leaves, the de- 
velopment of inter -leaves, are the consequences of 
the profound and long-continued disturbance which 
the oidium has carried into the vegetation of the vine, 
a disturbance whose manifestation dates from its ap- 
pearance upon it. 

In fine, the injuries (lesions) to be seen on the 
grapes, the cracking and drying of the berries, are 
the consequences of the alterations to which the ex- 
terior of their tissue has been subjected : they cause 
it to lose its elasticity, and to rupture when the inte- 
rior parts come to grow. 

THE OIDIUM TUCKEEI. 

The O'iditim Tuckeri is a microscopic cryptogam 
strongly resembling the erysephes, httle mushroom 
parasites of the most dangerous species. It is itself, 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 231 

then, nothing but a parasite, which feeds at the ex- 
pense of the very substance of the green parts of the 
different organs of the vine on which it plants itself, 
and thus prevents their development. Down to this 
time it has not been observed any where else than on 
the vine, and does not develop itself on other plants. 
The cryptogam observed on various fruit-trees, on 
hops, on the bind-weed, and rose-bushes, are all dif- 
ferent fi'om the oidium or erysephe of the vine, al- 
though their structure may be analogous to it. 
It is composed, 

1. Of creeping filaments, very loose, performing 
the functions of roots (Fig. 2, m, 7n) ; they are very 
numerous, elongated, ramified, without cells, cover- 
ing with an inextricable net-work the plant attack- 
ed. They are provided with globular protuberances, 
which penetrate the outer covering of the tissue, and 
serve as anchors to hold on by (Fig. 2, €, c). These 
last, by degrees, form about them the black spots no- 
ticed on the shoots, leaves, and fruit. This assem- 
blage of creeping filaments is designated by the term 
myceliuQU. 

2. Erect filaments, divided from distance to dis- 
tance into cells, and club-shaped. The cells are sus- 
ceptible of being transformed each into a particular 
kind of seed. These filaments are designated as 



'232 European Vineyards. 

tigelles, or j^ertile ^laments, in contradistinction to 
those of the mycelium, which are designated by the 
name of sterile filobments. 

3. Of spores or sporules (Figs. 2 and 3, 5, s, s) ; 
these are elipsoid corpuscles, that is to say, about the 
form of an ^g^^^ engendered by the cells of the ti- 
gelles, borne by them, and placed end to end at their 
extremities. These spores perform the function of 
seeds of the mushroom parasite ; they germinate and 
reproduce it in all its parts. 

Thus the oidium is furnished with distinct organs, 
which fulfill the functions of roots, stalks, and seeds. 

It needs a good microscope to see the oidium well, 
for it is extremely small, as will be seen by the fol- 
lowing figures, which express its dimensions. 

The filaments of the mycelium are from 3 to 5 
thousandths of a millimetre (a millimetre is .03937 
of an inch) in thickness. Singly they are impercept- 
ible to the naked eye, which can not see them except 
grouped in masses. 

The tigelles have a diameter of 4 or 5 thousandths 
of a millimetre in the narrowest part, at the base ; 
it is often double that at the top. Their length va- 
ries from 7 to 15 hundredths of a millimetre. 

The spores are of variable sizes ; in general their 
largest diameter is 25 thousandths of a millimetre ; 



SULPHU.KING OF DISEASED ViNES. 233 

it is often less. Their smallest diameter is about 
10 thousandths of a millimetre. 

The oidium mould, when it covers all the different 
parts of a diseased vine, consists, then, of an enor- 
mous number of individuals. The fragments of the 
mycelium reproduce it as scions, and the spores as 
seeds. Each little surface covered with mould may 
be considered as a nursery, capable of furnishing a 
prodigious quantity of reproductive elements, and 
which the movement of the air will afterward spread 
abroad on all sides. 

In hot and damp weather, the oidium multiplies 
itself thus very quick by scion as well as seed, and 
can suddenly infect great extents of vine-plantation. 
It spreads on the surface of the green parts, and fast- 
ens there, interlacing it with a multitude of the fila- 
ments of its mycelium, on which sustain themselves, 
like fibres on a surface of velvet, the tigelles loaded 
with spores. In the early days of its appearance, 
the tissues on which it spreads are not impaired ; but, 
little by little, they discolor, rot, and are destroyed. 
There results from this a disorganization which af- 
fects the parts over which the oidium spreads, and 
especially the grapes. We may then prevent the 
bad effects of this parasite by attacking and destroy- 
ing it as soon as we see it appear, and before it is 



234 EuEOPEAN Vineyards. 

well established on all the vines of the vineyard ; 
whereas, if we wait too long, the evil is done, and no 
remedy can avail. 

DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THE VINE DISEASE. 

This assemblage of properties so peculiar explains 
why the disease propagates itself and develops ; how 
it effects such ravages when circumstances favor the 
vegetation of the mushroom, and do not oppose its 
development. Many observers also consider this 
cryptogam as the cause of the disease. Their opin- 
ion has still greater force, since it has been proved 
that the disease can be cured, on parts newly attack- 
ed, by simply rubbing it off, or by destropng it in 
any other mode. Thus the direct study of the dis- 
ease has brought us to these conclusions : 

1. That it is by the oidium alone that we recog- 
nize it. 

2. That its disappearance, wherever it has not af- 
fected the tissues, is marked by the disappearance of 
the disease and of its effects. 

The logical consequence of these conclusions is 
that the oidium produces the disease of the vine by 
developing itself upon it, by disturbing its vegetation, 
and by exhausting it after the manner of parasites. 

Other opinions are brought forward ; they are of 



SULPHURIXG OF DISEASED Y IN ES. 235 

two sorts. One of them would attribute the disease 
to the presence of certain httle insects whose stings 
cause the wounds on which afterward the oidium 
develops itself. This system is at this day alto- 
gether abandoned, for direct observation has never 
been able to discover any insects whatever in num- 
bers sufficient to produce effects like those of the dis- 
ease. 

The other opinion attributes the disease of the 
vine to a particular state of the plant itself. That 
diseased state of the interior that has been observed 
might be produced by the appearance of the oidium, 
and would then be the effect, and not the cause of 
the disease. This explanation might be well found- 
ed if we knew to what to attribute the diseased state 
of the interior ; but, down to the present time, noth- 
ing has occurred to justify the supposition. Yines 
are diseased in all countries, in all situations and ex- 
posm-es, in the best soils, of every species. Every 
kind of treatment, by manuring, pruning, cultivation, 
etc., have failed. "W"e must then give up this ex- 
planation, since experience does not confirm it. 

The only opinion which, down to the present time, 
agrees with direct observation, that which attributes 
the disease to the development of the oidium at the 
expense of the various organs of the \me on which 



236 European Vineyards. 

it plants itself, is that which, it appears to me, should 
be adopted. 

CONDITIONS TO BE FULFILLED IN OKDER TO COMBAT 
THE VINE DISEASE. 

In placing oui'selves at this point of view, the 
problem of how to combat the vine disease resolves 
itself into that of destroying the oidium, or its germs, 
in all stages of their development, and on every part 
of the vine where they jnay be found. 

I have made, toward this end, for several years 
past, a great number of experiments of all kinds, and 
I have realized that it was hardly possible to destroy 
the disease by attacking, during the slumber of vege- 
tation, the germs which reproduce it. The means 
employed for this purpose may accomplish it, and 
the disease will not disappear for all that. 

In effect, as soon as A-egetation is in movement, a 
cloud of reproductive oidium germs, transported by 
the currents of air, light upon the green portions, 
take possession of them, and at the end of a few days 
the disease breaks out anew ; the oidium gi'ows, fruc- 
tifies, implants itself every where, destroys the fruit, 
and emaciates the vine. 

The methods which aim at merely curing the dis- 
eased grapes are still more insufficient than the pre- 



Sulphuring of Diseased Yines. 23Y 

ceding, because they leave the disease full sway 
dui'ing the first three months of the vegetation of 
the vine, the very time when it is most redoubtable, 
and abandon altogether to its ravages the shoots and 
leaves. Such methods really amount to very little. 

As we can only certainly know the presence of 
the disease by that of the oidium, and as it fastens 
only on the green parts, it is upon those green parts 
we must attack and destroy it as soon as the parasite 
begins to make its appearance there. 

The conditions to fill are therefore the following : 

1. To operate on all the green surfaces of the vine 
in vegetation, penetrating wherever that fine dust can 
penetrate which forms the spores of the oidium. 

2. To renew as often as necessary the application 
of the destructive agent employed against the oidi- 
um, since the means of reproduction it possesses are 
incessantly at work, and it can develop itself anew 
as soon as the green surfaces of the vine cease to be 
protected from its attacks. 

3. To apply the remedy before the oidium has 
been able to impair the tissues of the different parts 
of the bud — above all, when it is young. This last 
condition is the most indispensable, because, if we 
fail to destroy the parasite until it has more or less 
affected the parts, we shall obtain but a partial result 
at best — the evil i-s already done. 



238 European Vineyards. 

These three conditions should be fulfilled by means 
that are sure, practical, not too costly, and which do 
not interfere at all with the divers operations of cul- 
tivation. 

PROPERTIES OF SULPHUR. 

The object is attained in an admirable manner by 
the flour of sulphur. It possesses, in fact, all the 
properties necessary to constitute it the curative 
agent " par excellence." On the one hand, it de- 
stroys the oidium whenever coming in contact with 
it ; and, on the other, its form, being that of a very 
fine dust, enables it to envelop by a simple aspersion 
the entire plant in vegetation, and its volatility in 
the temperature daily produced by the heats of sum- 
mer on the earth and the green surfaces exposed to 
the sun insures its action on the mischievous germs. 
It has, besides, the property, as remarkable as un- 
looked-for, of stimulating the vegetation of the vine, 
thus communicating to it vigor to conquer the at- 
tacks of the parasite. 

Sulphate of lime, soda, potash, which destroy very 
well the oidium when they can be brought in con- 
tact with it, are not at all volatile like sulphur. 
They have not at all, as it has, the property of pene- 
trating in the form of va})or all those places left mi 



Sulphuring of Diseased Yines. 239 

touched by it when in the form of dust, and of con- 
tinually renewing their curative action by every day 
vaporizing a little. They have, too, the serious in- 
convenience, if they pass into the wine with the 
grapes, of imparting to it a bad taste not always to 
be got rid of. 

The mixtures of sulphur and of dust, such as pul- 
verized earths, plaster, etc., have the inconvenience 
of neutralizing, more or less, the action, of the sul- 
phur,"so that by using such we risk obtaining but in- 
complete results. We may, besides, injure the qual- 
ity of the Avine if the mixtures in question are capa- 
ble of forming soluble combinations in it. 

ACTION OF SULPHUR ON THE OlDIUM. 

By direct observation under the microscope, we 
are able to see that the grains of flour of sulphur 
cause the oidium to perish when they enter in con- 
tact with it. 

One condition seems always necessary, which is, 
that the temperature should be above 20° of Centi- 
grade (68° of Fahrenlieit) when the contact takes 
place. Now this condition is always filled during 
days of sunshine, from the time the buds begin to 
put forth in April and May. Later, during the days 
of summer, the temperature almost always passes this 



240 European Vineyakds. 

limit, even in the shade. As the oidiiun does not 
propagate itself nor develop rapidly until the tem- 
perature reaches 25° to 35° of Centigrade (77° to 95° 
of Fahrenheit), such a heat insures the action of the 
sulphur against every increase of the disease. When 
the temperature is too low, the sulphur does not sen- 
sibly act ; and if blown off by wind or washed off by 
rain, it must be applied r.new. The action of the sul- 
phur on the oi'dium is quick enough, but it does not 
become apparent until after a few days. 

When the sun strikes the diseased parts which 
have been covered with sulphur, the action is much 
more energetic and rapid : it becomes apparent froin 
the second day, and often sooner. This results from 
the warmth of the sun's rays. 

A sulphuring well applied, which reaches the en- 
tire surface of the vine, will therefore destroy the 
oidium ; but, as the vine grows continually, and the 
grapes enlarge daily, as the wind and the rain carry 
off all the while some of the sulphur from the sur- 
faces where it was deposited, they soon become bare 
again and are exposed to new attacks ; then the 
oidium again appears and attacks the vine, as it did 
at first. This occurs ordinarily in summer time, after 
an interval of twenty to twentj^-five days,* or some- 

* When the ground is very damp beneath the surface, and the lat- 



SULPHUEING OF DISEASED ViNES. 241 

times a longer one. Then, again, it may happen that 
the oidium will not make a second appearance in se- 
rious form, especially if the weather continues for a 
long while very dry and very hot, and the sulphur 
rests a good while on the ground and on the various 
parts of the plant. 

The high temperature produced by the vertical rays 
of the sun in summer vaporizes the sulphur in a per- 
ceptible manner. It gives out then a very lively 
odor, which all must remark who have employed it 
on their vines. It is that portion which falls on the 
ground without reaching the vines which feels more 
particularly the effect of the heat and passes into va- 
por, because the smi's action heats the soil much more 
than it does the foliage. It results from this that the 
sulphur which was spilled and seemed lost, produces, 
on the contraiy, the happiest and most continued ef- 
fects, by passing daily into vapor under influence of 
the daily sunshine. Its molecules thus penetrate 

ter is dried, baked, and covered with weeds, and great heat succeeds 
to heavy, drying winds, the oidium will reappear more quickly. In 
such circumstances I have seen, in 1856, in the month of July, its in- 
vasions renewed after only ten days of interval. Such a combination 
of circumstances is not frequent ; at the same time, it will occur in 
wet seasons. In such cases the sidphurings must be brought closer 
together, and renewed as often as the invasions are repeated. 

L 



242 EUROPKAN ViNKYARPS. 

niiniberlcss points on the foliage and fruit that might 
not otherwise be rcached. 

I am surc that it is not at all to the sulphurous 
acid, nor to the sulphuric acid which is found in 
small quantities in flour of sulphur, that the action of 
the last upon the oidium is due. The same effects 
may be produced after having washed it ; they may 
also be obtained with sulphur-ivlls well pulverized. 

[Ilerc follows a \iery closely detailed examination 
into the chai-acteristic^ of the two forms of sulphm% 
namely, the ground and the sublimated, or flour of 
sulphur. The chapter devoted to this is omitted, 
with the obser\-ation that flour of sulphur is the best 
to use in America, as the difl^eronce \>er cent, in price 
is not hero so groat as it is in Fi-ance, and its greater 
cheapness there is the only ad\-antage it jxyssesses 
oxer the other. The flour is very light and fine of 
texturo, and of a beautiful yellow color. Ground 
sulphur is much the ligliter in color, and the finer 
(and, of course, the better) it is, the lighter is the 
hue.] 

sm^ptrcRiJTO OF diseased vines. 

The sulphuring of vines is an oi>eration which 
consists in spreading oxer their foliage and fruits 
sulphur in tine |X)wder. 



SuLPiiTKixG OF Diseased Vise3- 243 

Flour of sulphTir obtained by snbliroation is ordi- 
narily tbe form of it most suitable for the purpose. 

Three conditioDS are neceaaaiy to insmt; a good 
result 

1. The application miist be made «# «</^/i m tJie 
oidiur/i Tfegirut to ajqje/j/r on tJie vine. Thus the par- 
asite will be prevented from obtaining too strong a 
foothold on fruit and ifjUAge to impair their vegeta- 
tion and disease their tissues. 

2. The sulphuring mnst be renewed as often as 
the oi'dium renews its attack, and as soon as it reap- 
T/ears, Thus we continue to operate on the surface 
of the plant, and to prevent the bad effects which 
wonld not otherwise fafl to foDow a new invasion. 

3. The appL'cation should be thorongh, and reach 
every infected part It will not do, theredFore, merely 
Uj sulphur the diseased fruit ; the shoots, leaves, amd 
all the fnrit — in a word, every green part, must be 
dusted with sulphnr. When we find a single bud on 
a stalk to be diseased, we may be sure every other 
bnd carries on its surface the germs of the disease ; 
to destroy those germs, they most be reached with 

Tbe fmidjoneDtal principle ia ths : 9catt^r the tivl- 
jphur on every green j^H uj/on iheJirH aj/j^earance 
f'f Ute iymjAomji of tJie duease, and ren^j:i tJui ap- 



244- European Vineyards. 

2)liGation each time it reappears. It is especially 
at the commencement of vegetation that we must 
keep the vines free from attack. At that epoch the 
least delay is dangerous, for the buds then attacked 
are so young and feeble they have no power of re- 
sistance ; they emaciate, are stunted, and very quickly 
lost. Moreover, the earlier the disease appears the 
more virulent it generally is. The Carignans and 
Picardans, varieties which are usually the first to be 
attacked, are examples of this. 

A precautionary application may be made before 
any sign of disease appears. It can do no harm, but 
there is no rule for prescribing it. Such apphca- 
tions have no other objection than that, if made after 
vegetation is well advanced, they cost something. In 
the earlier periods of the development of the buds, 
that is to say, about the middle of May, the cost 
would be insignificant. But preventive applications 
should not be relied on too long, nor lull the vigi- 
lance with which we should watch every portion of 
the vineyard. 

Such a surveillance it is easy to organize by divid- 
ing the field according to the varieties it contains, 
and keeping a memorandum of the applications each 
division has received. 

Proprietors who have their vines sulphured should 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 245 

make sure it is properly done. It is an operation 
that needs the eye of the master. 

Sulphur may be applied at all hom*s of the day 
when it does not rain ; it is indifferent whether the 
surfaces where it lodges are wet or dry — the action 
is the same ; provided the temperature is not below 
20° Centigrade (68° Fahrenheit), it will destroy the 
oidium wherever it touches it. 

At the same time, the best conditions for employ- 
ing sulphm', and for its quick and lively action, are a 
dry and hot day, a brilhant sun, a light wind to aid 
its dispersion without disturbing that operation, and 
dry surfaces to receive the powder. 

In my practice five appHcations have sufiiced to 
combat the most malignant cases of the disease, 
where the attacks begun on the " Carignans" the 2d 
of May, and were repeated down to as late as Sep- 
tember. On some yoimg Aramons not invaded till 
July, only one sulphuring proved sufiicient. 

Between these two extremes, I have found that in 
the greater number of cases two or three sulphm-ings 
arrest very well the effects of the disease ; thi'ee have 
been enough in the greater portion of my vines, and, 
notably, in 1854, when the malignity was remarkable. 

Following the principles I have set forth, I em- 
ployed powdered sulphur in 1854, 1855, 1856, and 



246 EuEorEAN Vineyards. 

1857, on great extents of vine plantation, situated on 
the most varied soils, and growing all the varieties 
cultivated in the south of France; and I obtained 
so complete a success that there was no exception to 
it even when the disease had attained its greatest vir- 
ulence. 

The empirical methods that have been applied to 
sulphurization will never give such a collective re- 
sult. They have led into error a crowd of operators 
by designating in advance a fixed epoch for employ- 
ing the sulphur and the number of sulphm'ings nec- 
essary. This has been because the disease varies so 
much in the periods of its appearance and succes- 
sive reappearances, according to soil, exposure, varie- 
ty, and culture, that no general epoch can be fixed on 
of practical apphcation to all varieties and all soils, 
etc. ; we may hit right with some, we will miss with 
others. Moreover, these methods have produced a 
mixture of good and bad results which served to cast 
a cloud of uncertainty upon the efficacy of sulphur 
in the first years of its introduction, and retarded its 
general adoption. 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 247 

mannek of applying sulphur to vines. in8tru- 

ment6 most suil'able for that purpose. 

We can, if we choose, fling sulphur upon vines 
without any instrument, or we can dust or dredge 
it over tlie foliage from a thin muslin bag ; a sieve 
may also be made to serve ; the effects will be good 
if the operation in any of these ways be but careful- 
ly done. But the waste is great in such case, and a 
strong wind arrests the work entirely. It is there- 
fore important to adopt a good instrument. 

The quantity of sulphur necessary might be al- 
most indefinitely reduced if the sulphm' were itself 
di\'ided to infinitude, and if we could spread it with 
perfect regularity and uniformity, for great masses 
of it are not needed to produce the desired effect on 
the o'idium: it suffices that the dust of tliis substance, 
no matter how small its grainy may be, should pen- 
etrate wherever the oidium or its germs may be. 
With powder perfectly divided, and a suitable in- 
strument, a great economy of sidjDhiu' may be real- 
ized, then. 

The instrument should satisfy the following requi- 
sites : 

1. Throw the sulphm'-dust far enough, and scatter 
it uniforaily, so as not to fall in lumps. 



248 European Vineyards. 

2. Be able to augment or diiniiiisli at will the 
issue of dust. 

3. Not be inconvenient to the person who uses it. 

4. Facilitate the work. 

5. Be easy to handle, and capable of being used 
either by men or women, or by children of twelve 
years. 

6. Be strong, and not require repairing. 

7. Be of sufficiently low price. 

Down to the present time the instruments in use 
do not meet all tliese requirements ; but, if they have 
not yet attained the perfection of implements that 
have been subjected to the tests of a long experi- 
ence, they can, nevertheless, do good service. 

Those instruments are the following : 

1. Bellows of different kinds. 

The box-bellows, at first used, consisted of an or- 
dinaiy bellows, on the nozzle of which was fixed a 
tin receptacle, which was traversed by the blast, and 
into which the sulphur was put. 

These bellows projected the sulphur with force, 
and sent it well among the foliage, but a great deal 
of it went out in lumps; they held but a small 
charge, and needed frequent refitting ; they were 
heavy, and hard to handle, because the load was car- 
ried at the extremity ; they often got out of order 



Sri.PHrKi2fG OF Diseased Vi>-e5. 249 

from the ireight of ihe receptacle, wbieh woiis 
apart the joints, and fastenings, and ends^ by irrendi- 
ing off the nozzle. 

The Veignes bellows has replaced the above wiiii 
advanta£re. 

It is a commcai bellovrs without a valve, and 
whose whole interior eerves as a receptade for the 
snlphnr (Fig. 11). At the base of the nozde (0 is 
a deve with large meshes (#\, and made of eoaiee 
tinned iron wire (m) ; the soj^nr is thns prevented 
from gcong out in hnnpe, and the tin preserves the 
irm from too rapid cosrosion. 

The ur ccwoes in and goes ont bv the same way. 
bj ibe noKzie, which ^M>nld have at die base a snjfi- 
cient diameter to be slightlv conicaL 

A two-inch hole is eat in die iqiper board of the 
beDows to receive the so^nr, and to diis hole a 
stcfp^ of wood is fitted ($). A pomid of sulj^nr is 
a ptopo" diaige, and this will doee fifty vigorons 
vines as they are in Jiily, when tiie dioots : r r^ :if 
another and entirebr cover the gronnd.* Carr : 
be taken not to ovajoad the bellows, ' 
cMi not pJay eaaly. and the leather s-: _ ._ : . ... :.: 
the hinse. 

* AS:- - r 



250 European. Yinetards. 

The advantages of the bellows I have just de- 
scribed are these : 

It is cheaper than those made mth a tin recep- 
tacle between the body and the nozzle. 

It is more manageable, because all the weight is 
near the hand. 

It can carry a larger charge, and therefore needs 
less labor. 

It flings and scatters the sulphur, which, kept con- 
stantly in motion by the entrance and exit of the air 
through the same opening, is better divided, and 
makes fewer lumps. 

It is necessary that the leather of these bellows be 
of excellent quality and very strong ; inferior leather 
is soon corroded and covered with holes.* They 
can, besides, be very well and cheaply mended when 
holes appear, by pasting pieces of leather over the 
holes with a strong mucilage, which, in fact, makes 
them stronger than before. 

* Here I foresee a difficulty. With the best tanning material in 
the world, we have the worst leather in the world. Owing to a want 
of the critical faculty, as well as of economical foresight on the part of 
the consumers, and a want of conscience on the part of the tanners, 
we lose every year, from wearing bad shoe-leather, a sum sufficient 
to pay the interest on our debt. 

I think this is the second time in the course of this volume I have 
provided for that interest ; and, now we have chosen Grant for Pres- 
ident, I hope he will attend to this matter. — F. 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 251 

These bellows, nevertheless, have always the in- 
convenience of letting out some of the sulphur in 
lumps, and of breaking in holes. 

2. The perforated box. 

This is simply a round tin box, slightly conical, 
furnished at its larger extremity with a double bot- 
tom pierced with holes for the sulphur to sift through 
and pass out. The smaller end has a cover fitted to 
it, to be opened when the instrument is charged. 
This is the simplest and cheapest of all the instru- 
ments, and has the great advantage of never getting 
out of order ; but it has numerous difficulties : it is 
fatiguing and troublesome to the workman, works 
slowly, badly distributes the dust, and letting it out 
in lumps, causing great waste. Of all instruments 
in use, this one renders sulphuring the most dear and 
least expeditious. 

An improvement on the last is the box ^vitll a tuft 
(Fig. 12). The same in all other respects, it differs 
only in having a tuft of wool attached to the surface 
of the perforated end, the shreds of which are four 
inches long. This tuft becomes filled with sulphm-, 
and gives it off when shaken, receiving continued 
supplies from within the box. It lets out no lumps, 
and diminishes considerably the expenditure of sul- 
phur ; it avoids, thus, the two great disadvantages 



252 European Vineyards. 

of tlie simple perforated box, but does not remedy 
others. Besides, it can not be worked except with 
a very small quantity of sulphur, for otherwise it 
would gorge, and let none out; it therefore needs 
frequent filling, which wastes time. 

Down to this time I have used, notwithstanding its 
inconveniences, the Yergnes bellows, and it is with 
this instrument the results have been obtained which 
will be found farther on. 

Doubtless better results as to economy might be 
obtained with a more perfect implement. But, until 
sufficient practice shall have enabled me to record 
my testimony in favor of such a one, I limit myself 
to pointing out in what direction we ought to search 
after such improvements, and in designating such in- 
struments as have been more particularly brought 
before the attention of the pubhc. 

OP THE EPOCH FOR APPLYESTG SULPHrE. 

If the opinions of even the most eminent cultiva- 
tors is so divided as regards the efficacy of sulphur 
against the disease of the vine,* it is because that, to 
•obtain of that agent all its good effects, it must be 
applied at a determinate moment, which varies ac- 
cording to climate and variety. It is from not hav- 

* There is no longer any such division of opinion in France. 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 263 

ing operated properly, or not having sufficiently re- 
newed the operations, that they have not succeeded. 

The moment to seize upon is, I repeat, that when 
the first symptoms of the disease appear. If we 
wait too long, and the oidium gets a strong hold on 
the vine, we shall never completely cure its attacks. 
With certain varieties the grapes will be destroyed 
(Piquepouls and Terrets) ; with others they will be 
profoundly injured — they will become brown, crack 
open at the season, of maturity, etc. People will 
then say that sulphur has no power over the oidium, 
that they do not believe in it, that it is better to do 
nothing, etc. One accustomed to see diseased ^dnes 
learns very soon to seize the favorable nioment ; and 
here is the way to recognize it, and then to treat it, 
as it is manifested on our principal varieties in the 
south of France. 

[Although it may seem at first not worth while to 
read the details which follow respecting the different 
methods rendered necessary by the many different 
varieties of vines grown in the south of France, yet, 
upon reflection, and especially by reading those de- 
tails, the American vine -dresser will recognize the 
value of every thing they contain. They will show 
how one variety is afflicted in one way, and another 
in another — liow wide is the range of the manifesta- 



254 European Vineyards. 

tions of the oidium, and liow various — and prepare 
liim to deduce principles of diagnosis and treatment 
for each of our own native kinds, as each in turn 
shall become infected in its own peculiar way.] 

Carignans.—Of all varieties of the vine, the Ca- 
rignan is that which the disease attacks in prefer- 
ence ; in a great number of cases it takes the in- 
fection first, and then communicates it to the other 
varieties in a disastrous manner. In this respect it 
may be considered the seed-hea'mr to the mushroom 
parasite. It is it that spreads and disseminates the 
disease at the epochs when it is most particularly 
dangerous. It merits, therefore, very perticular at- 
tention. 

When a Carignan is attacked by the disease, we 
see, here and there, shoots affected by the oidium 
as early as In April, only a few days after their put- 
ting out. These buds are covered, wholly or in part, 
by a whitish or gray dust of a characteristic musty 
odor. At this epoch we must search closely to find 
these, for they are still very young and relatively 
few, and do not strike the eye if it is not practiced 
in watching for them. Thus a vine of Carignan 
will appear in good condition to the eye of a not 
very attentive observer, which is, at the same time, 
completely infected with the malady and already 
badly injured. 



SuLPiruEiNG OF Diseased Vines. 255 

At this epoch (April and the first days of May), 
Carignans thus invaded have not the yellow and sick- 
ly hue which the oidimn brings when it comes later 
in the season. As soon as we perceive the young 
buds to be affected, we must apply sulphur, and un- 
sparingly pluck off such as are entirely covered with 
the oidium. Strictly speaking, they may be cured, 
but they are already so impaired they will always 
remain stunted, and can give but an insignificant 
product."^ 

From this epoch (May), if the sim shines on the 
sulphured vines during several hours, or if the sul- 
phur remains forty-eight hours on the vine without 
being washed off by rain, thQ effect is produced. It 
will not become evident till several days afterward. 
We will then find that the affected shoots have lost 
the peculiar musty odor which accompanies the oid- 
ium. On examining closely the young leaves, we 
will see that the white spots have become gray, that 
they are no longer accompanied with dust, and have 
lost their odor. The disease is then suppressed for 

* In 1854 I cured shoots of the Carignan so completely attacked 
as to be covered as early as the 12th of May with a gray powder ; 
they were hardly four inches long. Their grapes ripened perfectly 
healthy, but the shoots, although cured, remained stunted. It suf- 
ficed to keep them constantly sulphured during the first month, and 
afterward renew the application every fortnight. 



256 European Vineyards. 

about three or four weeks. At the end of that time 
the shoots have grown. If it is perceived that the 
vine takes a sickly yellow hue, that the young leaves 
of their extremities are covered on their under sides 
and about their edges with white spots, that they are 
slightly crisp, we may be sure the disease will not be 
long in making a new irruption. We must- then 
again make a general application of the remedy on 
the shoots, leaves, and graj)es. It will act like the 
other if the weather is warm enough, and if a rain 
does not immediately carry it off. Its effect, if the 
sulphur remains several days on the vines, will con- 
tinue at least three weeks. 

The sm^veillance must continue from this time on- 
ward. A third, fourth, and even fifth application 
must be made, if necessary. 

The Carignan, while it is one of the vines which 
take the disease the most severely, is, at the same 
time, 'one which sulphur preserves the best. Under 
its influence it gives magnificent products. 

We always find a few Carignans scattered among 
mixed plantations. They there propagate the dis- 
ease in a disastrous manner. To prevent this, it is 
enough to sulphur them at first by themselves once 
or twice, if need be, at the beginning of vegetation ; 
afterward they are treated with the rest of the vine- 



Sulphuring of Diseased Yines. 257 

yard. This method is not expensive, and succeeds 
very well. 

In 1855 I preserved the worst attacked of my Ca- 
rignans with five sulplmrings, applied at the follow- 
ing epochs : the 2d of May, 19th May, 5th June, 9th 
July, and 14th August. In the deeper soils, the dis- 
ease being less precocious, three applications, made 
at the end of May, Jmie, and July respectively, were 
sutBcient. 

The Aramons. — The Aramons are attacked later 
than the Carignans. It is hardly before the second 
fortnight in May that we find appearances of the 
oidium on their shoots. These are, as yet, few in 
number, and scattered here and there. Before the 
end of May they must be pulled off and sacrificed. 
The vine will be infallibly attacked later, either in 
June or July. 

The signs which warn us the invasion has begun 
are a decided yellowness of the leaves, accompanied 
with little white spots around the indentations of the 
young leaves at the end of the shoot ; a slight crisj)- 
ing of those leaves; efflorescence on the berries of 
grapes or on their stems. This is the time to make 
a general and thorough application of sulphur ; its 
effect will be sure. In about eight days after the 
vine will take a beautiful green color ; all the efflo- 



258 European Vineyards. 

rescence will have disappeared. This arrests the dis- 
ease for twenty or thirty days, according to the 
weather. After that interval, signs of a second at- 
tack will be indicated by the shoots becoming yel- 
low ; by white spots on the lower side of the young 
leaves ; by the whitening of a grape here and there. 
Then give a second sulphming. 

If this is too long delayed, the yellowness increases ; 
the leaves crisp ; all along the shoot what we call in- 
ter-leaves j)ut out : these are new leaf -shoots, slender 
and curled. This last sign is characteristic of the 
disease, like the musty odor I have named. Finally, 
the white spots on the grapes cover them entirely 
and become gray. Then the fruit is injured, and 
will bear traces of damage even after being cured: 
it will be likely to split when it ripens. Sulphur, in 
tliis condition of things, may re-establish the vine, but 
will not preserve it in its full vigor, as it would if ap- 
phed a few daj's sooner ; and to accompHsh even thus 
much, it may be necessary to renew the application 
from week to week. 

The sulphur should be blown from a bellows, and 
be made to reach all green parts, but, at the same 
time, be more particularly directed toward the 
grapes. If the second sulphuring has been proper- 
ly done, and toward the end of July, n6 other will 
be needed. 



SuLPnuKiNG OF Diseased Vines. 259 

In general, two sulpliurings have been enough to 
preserve Aramons strongly invaded ; in a few cases 
only I have had to give three, and on yoimg ^dnes of 
this variety, not attacked till late in July, only one 
has sufficed. I sulphured my Aramons in 1854 and 
1855 : in the first year, on the 9tli of June, 14th of 
July, and 1st of August ;* and in the second year 
twice, namely, from the 9th to the 11th of June, and 
from the 10th to the 12th of July. 

It is noteworthy "that the grapes of the Aramon re- 
sist strongly the disease, while the wood is easily af- 
fected by it. "We also notice Aramons that preserve 
and ripen some fi-uit, although their young wood is 
seriously attacked. The vine is none the less dis- 
eased for all that, and will, in general, produce much 
less fruit the following year. 

Alicantes, Aspirans, Mourastels, (Eillades, Bruns 
Fourcats, Clairettes, etc. — ^We observe and treat the 
greater part of these red varieties as we do the Ara- 
mon. With them the disease has the same phases — 
the yellowness, crispness, inter-leaves, and invasion 
of the grape — but, in general, with less distinctness 
of manifestation. 

* In 1856 my Aramons wei'e sulphured, mostly, from the 24th to 
the 30th of June, and from the 15th to the 25th of July. Only a very 
few of the vines needed three applications. The oidium came later 
than it did the preceding years, on accosnt of the continuous rains. 



260 European Vineyards. 

The AUcantes and Moiirastels resist the disease re- 
markably well. 

The Muscat. — This vine has in its form and in its 
wood a great analogy with the Ai-amon, but it does 
not resist the oidimn well, and its fruit is affected 
much sooner than that of the other. 

The Piquepouls should be especially watched. 
As soon as the disease appears on them, so abrupt is 
its attack, the crop is ruined in a few hours if meas- 
ures are not taken. The attack aims principally at 
the grapes, and is much less felt on the shoots and 
leaves, which is the reverse of what happens with the 
Aramon. After the beginning of June or last of 
May, whenever we see the verdure of the shoots 
grow pale, and a few spots appear on the young 
leaves, sulphur must be applied; it will arrest the 
disease for three or four weeks. It must be after- 
ward renewed according as it may appear necessary. 
I have succeeded in saving Piquepouls strongly at- 
tacked by means of three sulphurings properly ad- 
ministered in May, June, and July. Under the influ- 
ence of sulphur, this variety gives very beautiful pro- 
ducts. 

The Terrets take the disease in an anomalous 
manner. Sometimes they resist very well, and give 
the best crops ; sometimes they give, on the contrary, 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 261 

the worst results, because the disease takes the form 
of '■'•.rougeaur We seldom see any of their shoots 
diseased until the epoch of general invasion comes, 
which is about the time of blossoming (the 25th of 
Jmie), or a little after, from the 1st to the 5th of 
July ; sometimes it comes sooner, in the first fort- 
night of June ; sometimes, again, it does not come at 
all, and then the vine is naturally cured. This last 
case is rare, however, and it is best not to count on it. 

The invasion announces itself by a slight yellow- 
ness of the leaves ; these, at their extremities, show 
white spots, cliiefly at the indentations. On the 
grapes, before as well as after the blossoming, oidi- 
um dust appears. If the grapes have not blossomed, 
the injury may already be considerable. 

Rougeau of Terrets. — On the appearance of the 
earliest symptoms, sulphur must be applied without 
delay. A few days of delay are very prejudicial, 
for the disease of the \dne takes suddenly, with Ter- 
rets, a new and terrible form : the vegetation of the 
plants ceases, the leaf turns red, dries, and falls ; the 
fi'uit dries or- becomes atrophied ; often it continues 
slowly to become covered with a gray dust ; the ber- 
ries then detach themselves one by one, or cease to 
grow any more : hardly a trace of fruit remains. 

It is this particular form of the disease that we 



262 EuRorEAN Vineyards. 

generally designate at this clay, in the Department of 
L'Herault, iinder the name of rougeau. This does 
not at all resemble the peculiar affection that the 
vine-cultivators of the north and east called rougeot 
before the disease of the vine was known. Messrs. 
Dunal and Esprit Fabre, who first called attention to 
the rougeau in January, 1854, took great care to dis- 
tinguish it from the other, but they did not attribute 
to it the origin which I give it, for they made of it a 
disease entirely distinct from that produced by the 
oidium. Since 1853 I have declared the rougeau of 
Terrets to be a particular form of the vine disease. 
It is produced by it, because we never see the rou- 
geau appear on our Terrets before the invasion of 
the Qidium — it always follows that, and is its conse- 
quence. Besides, when sulphur is applied to the 
Terrets at the moment of the oidium's appearance, 
the disease is cured, and the rougeau does not ap- 
pear, 

A good application of sulphm* at the beginning of 
the disease averts it for about twenty-five days. Aft- 
er that interval, if we have not yet reached the time 
when the grapes begin to color (the 15th or 20th of 
August), we may again perceive, on the young leaves 
at the end of the shoots, and on the grapes, new be- 
ginnings of the disease ; often even the signs of rou- 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 263 

geaii itself. "We must be prompt to sulj^lim* again, 
whicli will carry us safely through to vintage. 

When the application of sulphur is too long de- 
layed, and the rougeau actually comes, we must not 
hesitate to have recourse to the remedy anew, unless 
things have gone so far that all is lost. In ISS-i, 
from the 17th to the 19tli of July, I sulphured gray 
Terrets strongly attacked by rougeau — the crop was 
already half destroyed. At the end of ten days vege- 
tation resumed its com'se, the rougeau was arrested, 
and all the grapes which had not become atrophied 
were preserved. The vines in question yielded half 
a crop. Those in the same field which were not sul- 
phured perished entirely. 

The rougeau works its ravages principally at the 
epoch of our greatest heats, from the 15th of July to 
the 15 th of August. Of all forms of the disease, 
it is the most disastrous and most rapidly destruc- 
tive.'^ 

In general, two sulphurings, well done, and at the 
proper moment, combat it effectively on Terrets, al- 
though it often assumes a disastrous intensity. This 

* Possibly tliis form of oulium is the one for whose maw our dear 
little Nortons are destined. Certainly something very like the rou- 
geau came to my Norton vines last year. We hear, too, of the Del- 
awares losing their leaves. We shall see. — F. 



264 EUBOPEAN YiNEYABDS. 

is because the oidiiim begins its work upon that vari- 
ety quite late. 

In 1855 and 1856 two sulphurings proved sufficient 
to preserve my gray Terrets. The first was given be- 
tween the 4th and 7th of July, the second between 
the 1st and 3d of August. 

VINES SULPHUEED THE PEEOEDING TEAE. 

Every year since 1855 I have made comparative 
observations of vines sulphured in 1854, 1855, 1856, 
and 1857, and those which were not. In both, the 
oidium made its annual reappearance at the same 
epoch, and with the same intensity.* In 1854 I 
sulpliured several vines from the 7tli to the 17th of 
August. This was late enough, certainly, for the op- 
eration to have a preservative eifect ; yet in the fol- 
lowing year, as early as May, I found the oidium on 
shoots of those vines. What sufficed to meet the 
disease and render it harmless for one season was 
not sufficient to prevent its recurring early in the 
next ; so that the use of sulphur from year to year is 
not a preventive against the disease; nor is it any 
more so when resorted to at the beginning of vegeta- 

* In 1856 Carignan vines sulphured and preserved in 1855 were 
attacked after the end of April, like others not sulphured at all. In 
1857 they were attacked in May. 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 265 

tion. The proof is, we are obliged to keep renewing 
it, if we would obtain good results. This simple 
statement is enough to demonstrate how slight are 
the grounds on which all pretended preventive meth- 
ods of employing sulphur rest. Those who have ad- 
vocated them have never succeeded in preventing 
the coming of the oidium. They combat its effects 
as they are combated where rational means are used, 
but with this difference, that they employ, without 
motive, much useless material. Sulphur is simply a 
destructive agent par excellence of the oidium, inas- 
much as this last dies, as we have seen above, when 
brought in contact with it. Apart from the impul- 
sion it gives to the vegetation of the vine, the action 
of the sulphur against the oidium is then curative ; 
it has no other character. 

The \agor of sulphured vines produces generally 
in them, the following year, a more abundant pro- 
duction of fruit than that of such as had suffered by 
the disease. It is now a well-recognized fact that 
the shoots of such as I have last named present, in 
the season of putting forth, a quantity of grapes 
much less than that of vines in a normal state. 

M 



266 EuKorEAN Yineyaeds. 

PRECEPTS TO FOLLOW EST APPLYING SULPHUR TO 
DISEASED VINES. 

It is well to observe the following precepts in ap- 
plying sulphur to diseased ^dues : 

1. The vines attacked by oidium should be culti- 
vated with special care ; we should leave no weeds 
about them ; the earth should be kept always loose. 
Every thing that enfeebles vegetation favors the ac- 
tion of the disease ; for instance, bad pruning, plow- 
ing too seldom or doing it badly, the washing away 
of the earth from slopes, etc. The invasion of the 
parasite mushroom troubles profoundly the vegeta- 
tion of the plants. They must be reanimated by cul- 
tivation, while at the same time the parasite is de- 
stroyed by sulphur. In this way the most complete 
results will be obtained. 

If a diseased vine is manured, it must be culti- 
vated and sulphured with particular care. 

2. It is better to apply the sulphur too early than 
too late. 

3. Sulphurings at the moment of the blossoming 
have appeared to me the most efficacious; they ap- 
peared, besides, to exercise a salutary action on that 
phase of vegetation. I thought I observed, in 1854 
and 1855, that vines which received the sulphur at 



Sulphuring o^ Diseased Vines. 267 

that epoch had " knotted" their berries better than 
the others.* It destroys the oidimn at the moment 
when it is most capable of injuring the grapes, and 
the effect is therefore all the more valuable. There 
is no vine-dresser who has not seen, in certain years, 
grapes of the Terret disappear in a few days from 
having taken the oidinm at the moment of blossom- 
ing. The presence of sulphm* prevents that disas- 
ter. 

4. Every sulphuring should be carefully made, and 
reach all parts of the plant — shoots, leaves, and fruit. 
To spare the flour of sulphur is bad economy. The 
dust should be flung on either by walking all round 
the plant, or by doing first one side and then the 
other. The work is well done when, taking a bunch 
or a leaf, and holding it between the eye and the sun, 
numerous grains of fine dust can be seen upon it. 
Always bear in mind that sulphur destroys oidimn 
only when brought in contact with it. 

5. When a vine has been sulphured, it is proper to 
wait some days, at least, before plowing. What of 
the powder falls to the ground should be allowed to 

* I observed the same thing in 1856. It was confirmed the same 
year by the experiments of M. Cazalis-Allut ; and this important 
fact appears to me now beyond doubt, and desei-ves place among 
those the most interesting to viticulture. 



268 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

volatilize in the sun, and rise and condense on the 
shaded portions of the vine ; it will thus penetrate 
daily the sheltered places where a simple aspersion 
of the dust would not have carried it. To turn it 
under with the plow would defeat this process. 

6. If a rain comes and washes off the sulphur the 
very day it is applied, there is no risk in waiting a 
few days before renewing it. Notwithstanding the 
rain, the effects of the first application are consider- 
able, provided the temperature has attained 68° to 
85° Fahrenheit. From the time the vine is well in 
leaf — the month of July, for instance — strong rains, 
even, can not remove the sulphur, and even in May 
and June they derange less than was at first feared. 

7. The conditions most favorable to the action of 
sulphur are hot and dry weather and a clear sun. 
Nevertheless, sulphur may be applied in all weath- 
ers, and nothing should stop it, when the need is ur- 
gent, unless it be rain. 

If it is needed without delay, wind should be no 
objection, I have sulphured, in June, vines poorly 
leaved, during high winds, and succeeded well. In 
such cases it is only needful to use a little more ma- 
terial than in a calm. 

8. The effect of a sulphuring can not be judged 
until after about ten days. It is requisite, in fact, to 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 269 

give the vegetation time to regain its normal prog- 
ress and to develop anew. A rain falling a few days 
after the sulphuring renders the good effect of it 
much more conspicuous. The whole vine takes a re- 
markable greenness and brilhancy : the leaves seem 
varnished.* 

9. The sulphur is no preventive ; the need of re- 
newing it so often proves that. If we would pro- 
ceed with that economy of which large agricultural 
operations are worthy, it is proper to await the symp- 
toms before resorting to the remedy. 

10. After August 10th, in the climate of Montpel- 
lier, the effect of sulphuring on the varieties of red 
grapes is hardly appreciable in preser\ang the fruit. 

11. "When the grapes begin to color without being 
attacked by oidium, they are out of its reach. If 
they are already affected before beginning to turn, 
they will continue to suffer. What precedes has ex- 
plained why sulphuring performed toward the end of 
July, and done just when it should be, and as it should 
be [I use ten English words to translate " d-prqpos'^'], 
carries the fruit safely through into the vintager's 

* A gentleman, writing of the oidium in South Carolina, notices 
such a varnished appearance of the leaves as preceding the develop- 
.ment of the parasite. The two facts are worthy of being compared, 
and may possibly bear on the question of the origin of the pest. 



270 European Vineyards. 

basket. This is a fact confirmed by experience ever 
since the disease became known. The epoch of col- 
oring in the Department of L'Herault (according to 
years, varieties, and exposures) is fromtlie 5th to the 
25th of August. 

OF THE QUANTITY OF SULPHUR NECESSARY FOE THE 
TREATMENT OF DISEASED VINES. 

Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in May. 

12 pounds of floui- of sulphur at 13^ centimes $0 32^ 

Wages of a woman at 1 franc per day of 8 hours 16 

Total $0 48J 

Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in June (\5th to 20th). 

40 pounds of flour of sulphur at ISJ centimes $1 08 

2 days' labor of a woman, 8 hours effective at 1 franc 40 

Total .$1 48 

Cost of Sulphuring an Acre in July. 

Aramons, the most vigorous. 

48 pounds of flour of sulphur at 13| centimes* $1 30 

Labor of a woman 3 days at 1 franc 60 

Total $1 90 

In most kinds of Aanes, sulphuring in July costs no 
more than in June, and $1 48 may be taken as the 

* rive centimes equal one of our cents. The cost of sulphur in 
Cincinnati, by the wholesale, I found to be 7| cents, nearly thrice the 
cost in France. Men's wages in that country being usually 50 cents, 
and in om-s $1 50, it appears we should multiply by three the above 
estimates of M. Mar^s, and by four if men do the work. 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 271 

cost per acre from June onward. For two applica- 
tions, then, the cost will be $2 96, and for three, 
$4 44. The quantity of sulphur used will be from 
80 to 120 pounds per acre. This last figure is the 
maximum^ and is rarely reached ; in most vineyards 
the riiinimwm is seldom exceeded. Better sulphur 
than I have used would cost more, but less of it be 
needed. The dryer it is, the farther the same quan- 
tity will go, and the less will be the labor required. 

Practically there is no more simple operation than 
sulphuring vines, even when they are in their fullest 
luxuriance. Where the vines are trained to stakes, 
as in Bordeaux, Champagne, and the Bordelais, far 
less .material and labor are needed. Comparing the 
results obtained with the expenditure, no operation 
can be more advantageous ; the -sdnes are preserved 
on the soil, and their products saved fi'om the worst 
scom'ge that has ever attacked them. 

CONCERNING THE VEGETATION OF SULPHURED VINES. 

The effects of sulphur on the vegetation does not 
begin to be appreciable until the end of spring, or 
in summer, about eight days after -the application. 
Then the branches are seen to recover their beauti- 
ful green color and to vegetate with new vigor. At 
each application the same effect is manifested in a 



272 European Vineyards. 

marked manner; the vine also maintains a vigor so 
well sustained, provided it be well cultivated, that its 
fruit ripens much more equally and much earlier. 
These facts are at this day beyond doubt in all 
places where the proper method has been carefully 
followed. 

I have before alluded to the favorable influence of 
sulphur on the blossoming. I again observed it in 
1856, and the same year the observations of many 
cultivators confirmed my own, which I had published 
the year before. This fact, so important, is, more- 
over, not isolated, nor does it apply solely to the blos- 
soming and fructification of the vine. I ascertained, 
in 1866, that sulphur favors the fructification of a 
great number of fruit-trees, particularly plum, quince, 
pear, and apple trees, and exerts on the vegetation of 
a large number of cultivated plants a powerful influ- 
ence. From this point of view we may easily arrive 
at the conclusion that vines should be sulphured 
when in blossom, whether the oidium is present or 
not. 

A more even ripening, and probably, also, a special 
action of the sulphur on the coloring matter of the 
grapes, makes the wine from sulphured grapes have 
a higher color, so that in the departments of the 
south such wines maintained over the others an in- 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 273 

contestable superiority in 1855 and 1856, and it was 
the same in 1857. 

Sulphured vines have every where preserved their 
leaves with remarkable persistence, such as was only 
observed in well-manured vines before the disease 
came. In 1855 and 1856 they kept their verdure 
up to the frosts of December, looldng Hke so many 
green islets among the others, despoiled of their 
leaves since the month of October. Their wood is 
healthy, beautiful, and very much developed. Their 
products in grapes have been those of good years. 
Their wood being very vigorous, the shoots present 
the following year a show of fruit more abundant 
than vines that did not take the disease. 

The effects of sulphur on diseased vines is really 
marvelous when it is applied " d j)ro2)os" and often 
enoiigh to prevent any ravage of the oidium. The 
same vine, divided in two equal parts, has given me, 
according to the virulence of the disease, two or four 
times more fruit on the sulphured part than on the 
other ; the difference of product in grapes being still 
greater when we operate on Carignans, Piquepouls, 
etc. 

This remarkable vegetation of sulphm'ed vines 
brings us naturally to put the question, Is the sul- 
phur a manure, or at least a stimulant for the vine ? 
M2 



274 European Vineyards. 

What I have observed down to this time, and par- 
ticularly in 1856, after ha\dng put the question in 
the first edition of this work, leads me to answer af- 
firmatively. At the same time, it will not do to con- 
clude that the use of sulphur dispenses with that of 
manure. I have noticed that its good effects tend 
to diminish when the soil is neglected as to manur- 
ing, while in soils well manured and well cultivated 
its effects on vegetation sustained themselves dur- 
ing many succeeding years in the most remarkable 
manner. 

I feel sure that sulphur augments considerably 
the vegetation and fructification of the vine inde- 
pendently of its state of disease. It will be a valua- 
ble agent to increase the fertility of vineyards and 
render them more regular, but upon condition that 
manure be concurrently employed, otherwise its ac- 
tion will yearly grow less, and end by becoming in- 
significant. 

This same consideration ought to reassure those 
who think the stimulating action of sulphur may 
soon exhaust their vines ; for that stimulating action 
can not exert itself except in so much as it is favor- 
ed by the richness of the soil, and will not, to any 
considerable extent, increase the fruitf ulness of bad- 
ly-kept fields. In those well kept up, sulphur acts 



Sulphuring of Diseased Yines. 275 

like good cultivation and manuring, which, while 
developing the productive force of the vine, are far 
from exhausting it. 

In any case, notliing is more worthy of interest than 
the study of questions arising out of the use of sulphur 
to stimulate vegetation. It is a wholly new field, in 
which the student of vegetable physiology and agri- 
culture may find numerous subjects of observation. 

review of the chapters which relate to the 
employment of sulphur and its action on the 

VINE. 

In this review we see that the action of sulphur 
on the vine is exerted in two ways quite distinct. 

In the first place, sulphur destroys the little para- 
site mushroom (oidium Tuckeri) whose development 
on the branches and fruit constitutes the disease. 

In the second place, sulphur acts by exciting veg- 
etation and .favoring fructification. 

Thus two distinct properties reciprocally complete 
each other when the disease is to be combated. 

The sulphurings should therefore be so timed and 
regulated as that the one should work to the advan- 
tage of the other. 

Thus we should always sulphur at the period of 
blossoming, in order that the fructification should 



270 European Y i n e y a k d s. 

operate more completely, and this without regard to 
the disease. If, before or after this is done, the oid- 
ium makes its attack, it will be sufficient, independ- 
ently of the sulphuring at blossom-time, to give an- 
other each time the first symptoms of disease show 
themselves. I have described them minutely, and, 
besides, every one knows them too well at the pres- 
ent day to make any mistake. 

I have shown by numerous examples that in the 
most obstinate cases it is rare that four sulphurings 
are necessary, not counting that given at blossom- 
time ; that of tener it suffices to add one or two only 
to this last, in order to obtain the best results. We 
have also seen how the surveillance of a large vine- 
yard, of varieties the most diverse, is made easy, by 
keeping a memorandum of the fields in cultivation, 
and of the sulphurings given them ; for the study of 
the oidium proves that its reappearances are almost 
always separated by an interval of twenty to thirty 
days, according to the intensity of the disease, the 
variety, soil, cultivation, and temperature. 

Thanks to this system, I have indicated how the 
application should be made to all the varieties of 
most importance in the South of France ; how we 
may be always in time, always sure to succeed. We 
realize the greatest possible economy, and do not, all 



SULPHUEING OF DISEASED ViNES. 27T 

at a time and needlessly, employ an excessive force 
of laborers at seasons when they are so scarce that 
often the most m-gent labors must go undone. 

For those who would free themselves from the 
trouble of watching over their vines, and care little 
about the additional expense — who prefer a rule 
ready made — there is anotlier manner of procedure 
equally sure : it is to apply sulphur to their vines 
every twenty days, heginning at the moment when 
the shoots have attained the length of two inches, 
and continuing till the grapes hegin to color. In 
the climate of Montpellier these two epochs are com- 
prised between the 1st of May and the lOtli of Au- 
gust, or thereabout. In that interval of a hundred 
days there will be five or six sulphurings to make, 
whose effects will be assured, as well for the purpose 
of destroying the oidium as for that of favoring the 
vegetation and fructification of the vine. By this 
system, which is based on the interval which sepa- 
rates ordinarily the reappearances of the oidium, the 
average cost of material and labor ^vill be double 
that which I have given as the highest estimate. 

OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE USE OF SULPHUR. 

The principal objections made against the em- 
ployment of sulphur are the following : 



278 European Yineyakds. 

1st Objection. — The good effects are doubtful. ' 

If the good effects are doubted by any, it is be- 
cause they have not made the application under the 
proper conditions; either their vines had been too 
long invaded, or the sulphuring was not soon enough 
renewed and at the opportune moment, or it was in- 
completely done, and directed against the diseased 
grapes only instead of all the fruit and entire fo- 
Hage. It is probable that later, when the employ- 
ment of sulphm' shall have become more general, 
and we understand better its management, no one 
will seriously dispute its value. 

In all the course of this work I have demonstrated 
by direct observation, or by practice and the produc- 
tion of facts, how ill founded is this objection. I will 
add to these a few considerations to answer the argu- 
ments of those who tell us they every year see dis- 
eased "sdnes cure themselves spontaneously without 
any sulphur, and that if those which are sulphured 
recover, it is not the sulphur that cures them, but 
Nature. 

Tliere are vines, it is true, which rid themselves 
spontaneously of disease ; nevertheless, they are never 
entirely delivered from it, and for that reason are 
not comparable for strength and beauty to the same 
vines treated with sulphur. We know them as soon 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 279 

as we look at them. We always see numerous traces 
of the oidium on their grapes, but principally on 
their shoots. If they pass for being. spontaneously 
cured, it is not so much because we see no oidium 
appear upon them as because they give a better 
crop than in preceding years. It would be more 
proper to recognize in their condition a marked ame- 
lioration than a cure. The number of vines really 
cured spontaneously is small. 

But, in any case, spontaneous cure and sulphur 
cure are two things which do not conflict at all, es- 
pecially when that which passes for spontaneously 
cm-ed, like that which is cured by sulphur, is subject 
to be again attacked by the disease. Finally, com- 
parative experiments made on the same vine divided 
in two parts, of which the half which was sulphured 
was perfectly preserved, while the 'other half, left to 
itself, was completely ravaged, answer all objections. 
Such comparative experiments were often repeated 
in 1854, 1855, and 1856. 

2d Objection. — TTie use of sulphur is expensive. 

I have replied in advance to this objection, and 
proved that such expense hardly amounted to a 
fourth or a seventh of the ordinary current expenses 
of a vineyard, including interest, taxes, etc. It is, 
nevertheless, no trifling expense, but it is very largely 



280 European Vineyards. 

compensated down to the present time by the in- 
creased price obtained for the wine. 

3d Objection. — Sulphur used on the grapes im- 
joarts a had taste, which enters into the wine. 

This is no better founded than the other objec- 
tions. It is true, wine from grapes recently sul- 
phured has a very marked sulphurous flavor, which 
lasts a good while, but when nothing else has been 
mixed with the sulphur, there is nothing to fear from 
this ; ordinarily it passes away without leaving any 
trace after the drawings off which remove the wine 
from the coarse lees. The taste, besides, is slight 
when the sulphuring has been done in a rational 
manner, without covering the grapes with a useless 
quantity of dust, and that, too, so late in the season 
that no good could come of it, however applied. I 
have had in my cellar many large casks full of wine 
from sulphured grapes ; it has always kept well and 
brought a good price. Nor have I ever learned that 
the case was different in the cellars of others. To 
my view, the feeble quantity of gas which may de- 
velop from the sulphur in such wines is a preserva- 
tive agent, and imparts a peculiar stability. 

But, however this may be, there is a sure means to 
avoid the contracting of any such taste. It consists 
in making the last sulphuring not later than from 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 281 

the 20th of July to the 15th of August, and in using 
a bellows instead of flinging on the powder from a 
box, and at a period so late that there can be no need 
for it in any case. 

But, even after the sulphur taste has been con- 
tracted, it can be removed easily enough by once or 
twice drawing oif. Usually the first drawing off, 
which, by removing the coarse lees, disposes of the 
greater part of the sulphur, is found sufficient. 

M. Barral has pointed out a way of more prompt- 
ly effecting the same object : it consists in drawing 
off the wine into a cask in which sulphur has been 
burned in the ordinary method of fumigation. The 
sulphureted hydrogen which gives the bad taste de- 
composes in contact with the sulphurous acid intro- 
duced by the fumigation, and the wine is quickly re- 
lieved of the presence of the former. Wine destined 
for the still should be carefully rid of the taste in 
question, as otherwise it will enter into the brandy. 

We know that great quantities of sulphur are used 
by wine-merchants to fumigate their casks. . There 
is no more reason to fear injury to the quality of the 
wine in the one case than in the other.* 

* But a few years since, wine was shipped from Cette to Holland 
quite new, on the lees, and strongly sulphured. This wine, after the 
treatment, appeared to have lost color. In that state it made the sea 



282 European Vineyakds. 

In 1855 and 1856 wines from sulphured grapes 
generally possessed a superiority over others which 
caused them to be sought after. Their color was 
livelier and their maturity more equal. It was the 
same in 1857. These are advantages which decide 
the question altogether in favor of sul]3hur. 

When the sulphur used on the vines has been the 
triturated article fi'om raw material of inferior qual- 
ity, or mixed with other matters capable of forming 
sulphurets, it may happen that a disagreeable taste 
will be produced, quite distinct from that which 
comes fi'om sulphureted hydrogen. This wiU be 
due to the presence in the wine of a small quantity 
of soluble sulphurets : it is very tenacious. At the 
same time, if the casks are strongly fumigated with 
burning sulphur and drawn off several times, it ought 
to disappear, because sulphurous acid decomposes 
soluble sulphurets. 

"Wlien vines are treated with sulphur that is free 
from all mixture, like the flour or triturated rolls, 
there is no danger of such accidents. 

4th Objection. — Sufficient sulphur can not he ob- 
tained to cure, every year, all the diseased vines. 

voyage, and on its aiTival was allowed to repose. It was drawn off 
several times and then clarified. It became excellent, and was re- 
marked for its freshness and delicacy. 



Sulphuring of Diseased Vines. 283 

Admitting that the vine disease will continue for 
a long time and with its present virulence, we shall 
certainly need a good deal of sulphm*. But there is 
hardly a limit to its production ; millions of quintals 
may be obtained, if needed. The rise in price of the 
llour did not extend to crude sulphur, so large is the 
supply. It was the suddenness of the demand that 
made ilour of sulphur temporarily dear. Let the ex- 
tent of the prospective demand be known, and the 
increased means of manufacturing it will bring down 
the price to a reasonable point,* and medicine enough 
be found to heal all the sick. 

* Within six months from writing the above, this prediction M'as 
fully realized. 



264 European Vineyards. 



CHAPTEE XYIL 

MONT'PELLTER AND HENRI MARES. 

A ND now we will go to Montpellier and make 

-^ tlie acquaintance of M. Mares himself. Mont- 
pellier was once a capital of Languedoc, Toulouse 
being another. As long ago as the times of the 
Crusades, it was a republic, free and flourishing, and 
" the hope of the free." It was ruined, however, by 
long wars, waged on each side to correct the theology 
and save the souls of those on the other side. 

In a fine old mansion near the beautiful park, or 
rather point of view called the Perou, I found M. 
Mares. He met me as he should, and I spent an 
hour with him explaining what my errand M^as, and 
endeavoring to interest him in it. On parting, he 
promised that, on the day but one following, he would 
call and go with me over some of his vines, excusing 
himself for not doing so the next day, as it was a fete. 

To properly occupy the fete-day, 1 took the train 
for Cette, the neighboring sea-port, a place of large 



MONTPELLIEB AND HeNRI MaEES. 285 

wine commerce, and famous for its " imitations," as 
they call the Madeira, Sherry, Port, etc., they make 
there. These are not, however, like those of Chaptal 
and Gall, imitations of the miracle of Cana, but are 
based on sound, strong, natural wines, which are fla- 
vored and named in deference to British and Amer- 
ican tastes. • 

The train stopped for a while at the village of 
Frontignan, famous for the Muscat of that name. 
The Muscat requires a soil open, warai, and, at the 
same time, rather strong. The grapes must hang on 
the vines a certain time after maturity, and on any 
but a dry soil would rot during the heavy rains of 
the last of October, which I have said were common 
in Languedoc. To give sweet and high-flavored 
wine, the vines need to be at least twenty years old, 
which is a pity, for we could make Muscats grow in 
many parts of America, and the wine, so luscious, 
and, at the same time, so delicate, would suit the 
tastes of our people, and help them learn to love 
wines in general. It would be an admirable sugar- 
teat to wean teetotalers. 

In different parts of L'Herault as many as 5000 
acres are planted with this variety, but the average 
yield is very small, in some neighborhoods not ex- 
ceeding sixty gallons to the acre. It is grown in 



286 European Vineyakds. 

souche, or, if trained to trellis, yields an inferior pro- 
duct. The spaces are only three feet. 

I walked about the streets of Cette, and went 
through some of its vast warehouses. Nobody would 
tell me what were the ingredients put in to make 
Port, Sherry, Madeira, etc. They manage to do with- 
out cellars by calling by that name their ground-floor 
store-houses, and sprinkling their pavements in hot 
weather. 

During the evening, after returning from Cette, I 
invited to my room the old, well-decorated officer of 
the First Empire who kept the hotel. He said the 
vine product had greatly increased of late years, in 
consequence of the rise in prices, which still kept 
rising, notwithstanding the increase. But the wine 
was not what it once was; the resort to manuring 
had not only lowered the quality, but so affected its 
keeping properties, that whereas formerly good wines 
would keep fifteen years, now they last only five. The 
better kinds, St. George's, for instance, used to bring 
only about 18 cents a gallon ; the price of the staple 
red wines of L'Herault now ranges from 10 to 25 
cents. And this is the story all over the French 
vine districts — increasing consumption, advancing 
prices, extended plantations ; manuring, increased 
yield, and inferior quahty. 



MONTPELLIER AND HeNEI MaEES. 287 

Next day M. Mar^s called for me, and conducted 
me over one of his vineyards lying at the edge of 
the city. The wine-house belonging to it was the 
same in which Chaptal, at the time a resident of 
Montpelher, carried on his experiments in falsif}dng 
wines. His example has found few followers in his 
own province, however, and the only wonder is that, 
with real wine flowing like a sea aroimd him, and 
selling for 5 cents a gallon, he should have thought it 
worth while to employ his great abilities in making 
it from water. 

The vines I found to be furnished with fi-om six 
to eight shoots or canes to each souche, each cane cut 
back to two eyes and what they call a sub-eye. The 
very old ^dnes had more canes than any others. To 
prune, they use a two-handed shears, and make a 
square cut, instead of one which leaves the tip in 
shape of a whistle. These shears are said to save 
three fom'ths of the labor, and, since the cost of 
pruning is so large a proportion of the whole ex- 
pense of working vines in souche, it is said that, but 
for their invention, wines of the south could hardly 
have kept their place in the market. 

It is difiicult to see how vines in souche could be 
pruned any longer than they are, if the finiit is to be 
kept off the ground. As it is, however, all the clus- 



288 European Vineyards. 

ters being collected about the crotch of the souche, 
and balan"bing each other from opposite sides, they 
are very well sustained. It is likely many of our 
American varieties would prove too long-jointed for 
such training, or bear their fruit so far out on the 
branch that, in cutting back to two eyes only, we 
should cut away all the fruit-buds. There are vines 
in France which have this habit, and for such M. 
Guyot's system might be a good one. Some of the 
plants I saw had the valuable peculiarity of holding 
their canes, and the shoots from them, quite erect, 
while others drooped and trailed. 

The field had received its first plowing. Good cul- 
tivation, M. Mares said, required three workings of 
the ground in a season, and sometimes four. The 
fii'st should be done between the first of January and 
the last of March ; the second, between the 15th of 
May and the 1st of June ; and the third, some time 
before the 24th of June, or be deferred till the fii'st 
fortnight of July, though generally that is rendered 
impossible by the vines spreading so as to completely 
cover the ground. Formerly twice working was con- 
sidered enough. Hand-labor is thought the best, and 
doubtless it is, but the plow is more generally used 
because it is more economical. It is not unusual to 
plow both ways, tlie furrows crossing each other. 



Mont PELL lEK and Henri Mares. 289 

The first operation is often so performed as to throw 
the earth away from the feet of the vines, leaving 
them standing in little trenches seven inches deep. 
As this is done at any time from the first of January 
to the last of March, it would be a destructive prac- 
tice in oin- country of cold winters, as one of my 
neighbors across the Ohio learned at his own ex- 
pense, when a very skillful vine-dresser undertook to 
do in Kentucky what he had been taught in France. 

Naturally one of my first inquiries was for the 
reason why low-souche training was not seen in other 
parts of France. The reply was that, except in the 
warm climate of the south, fruit would not ripen 
unless spread out on trellis or stakes. The Folle 
Blanche, however, which thrives in the comparative- 
ly cold and damp region of the Bordelais and the 
brandy country of the Charente, is an exception to 
this rule. 

" These vines," said M. Mares, as we passed into 
another plantation, " in their third season from cut- 
tings, which was last year, yielded 100 hectolitres to 
the hectare" (about 1000 gallons to the acre). Old- 
er plants in the same field had given double that 
quantity. 

Seeing bits of rags sticking out of the ground 
here and there, I asked if they had been brought 
N 



290 European Vineyards. 

there as a manure. They had, and rags are held in 
very high esteem. Oil-cake, too, is considered par- 
ticularly valuable. 

In remarking on the space allowed between the 
plants, M. Mar^s said that experience had shown that 
nothing was gained by setting them any closer, an 
acre of vines standing within tln-ee feet of each oth- 
er yielding no more wine than if they were five feet 
apart. 

Early on the following day, which was the 15th 
of April, M. Mar^s called by appointment to drive 
me out to his large estate, ten miles from Montpel- 
lier. On my remarking that the morning was sharp 
and frosty, he told me there had been a severe frost 
both the last night and the one before, and he was 
rather anxious to learn how far his vines had suf- 
fered; but he was apparently less preoccupied dur- 
ing the drive out than might be expected of a man 
with 250 acres of vines and two sharp frosts on his 
mind. 

An hour and a half or less brought us within sight 
of a large chateau, with a wall about it, amid planta- 
tions of olives, mulberries, and vines, otherwise unin- 
closed. Halting the carriage a good way short of 
the house, we got out and entered a field bordering 
the road, and the proprietor began his inspection. It 



MONTPELLIEK AND IIeNBI MaEES. 291 

did not by any means please him, and the result was 
that he became convinced he had lost half his pros- 
pective crop on all vines sufficiently advanced to be 
hurt. 

" We are ravaged, M, Henri I" exclaimed, in a bluff 
voice, a bluff, wholesome-looking man, with a gun in 
his'hand, who came to nieet us. It was the overseer, 
who was, at the same time, the ^^frere-du-lai^^ of M. 
Mares. In old coimtries, where they try to remember 
and not forget, the relation of foster-brother (broth- 
er of the milk) is rather a near one, and I am sure 
the overseer performed his duty with more fidehty, 
and more pleasure too, for considering himself a 
member of the family. He had been through the 
fields since daylight, and made his report as above — 
" We are ravaged." " I think so," was the reply of 
the other, as he continued on, tramping over the dusty 
furrows, continually stooping to examine the buds as 
he went, like one who is his own chief overseer. And 
I must tramp after him and listen to all he said, for 
seldom could I obtain admission to a lecture such as 
he was giving. We talked as continuously as we 
walked, his familiarity with every detail, and his 
scientific knowledge of his subject, more than ever 
convincing me I had fallen into the hands of the 
right man. I could easily see, also, that the fields 



292 European Yineyakds. 

were clean of weeds, every vine-souche in good health, 
with none missing, the alleys well kept, and all things 
thing fully up with the season. 

Three hours of such walking and talking brought 
us to the gate of the chateau and- the hour for break- 
fast. Yines in low places had suffered the most, and 
in this respect it was the same with the mulberry- 
trees. Recently - plowed fields, other things equal, 
had decidedly been worse hurt than those early 
plowed. Late pruning was also shown to be a pro- 
tection. The dangerous term, as regards frosts, is, 
it seems, from the 1st of April to the 10th of May 
(which last date is precisely our limit in the Ohio 
Valley), but now and then the limit is exceeded in 
Languedoc as well as Ohio. For the above reason, 
no plowing is done, if it can be helped, between 
those dates. 

Pruning is by many deferred to the latest safe 
moment, and by some is done even as late as the 1st 
of April — " in the flow of the sap," as it is called — 
which is said to guarantee the wines through the 
whole of that month. But this practice is objected 
to as having a stunting effect. A good many vines 
had been burst (in their last year's wood) by the late 
severe winter, the mercury having fallen as low as 
17° ahove zero of Fahrenheit. One of our Ameri- 
can wintei*s would astonisli them, I think. 



MONTPELLIEB AND HeNRI MaKES. 293 

We were ready for our breakfast when it came in 
— for a " breakfast with forks," as they call it. While 
dispatching the excellent and substantial one spread 
before us by an old domestic, we tried several kinds 
of the finer wines of the country, such as Muscat, Pi- 
cardin sweet and dry, etc. Five francs a bottle was 
the price of one of the Muscats, grown during the 
hottest season in memory. The price of the average 
quality of this kind of wine, when old enough for 
drinking, is but tliirty cents. It is sad to know this, 
and then to think of the ten and fifteen fold prices 
wrung from our toiling thousands of money-makers, 
bankers, jobbers, and stock-jobbers for inferior liq- 
uids by heartless hotel and restaurant keepers. 

In reply to an inquiry from my entertainer if I 
really thought the vine could be made to succeed in 
America, I told him yes, of course ; it was native to 
every inch of our soil, found in all our forests from 
North to South, whereas, I went on to add, neither 
France nor any other part of Europe could claim it 
as indigenous, and for this last gave Humboldt as 
my authority. To my surprise, M. Mar5s refused 
to admit my fact and Humboldt's, which I and H. 
had affirmed a thousand times without meeting with 
contradiction. He assured me that wild ^dnes still 
existed in many parts of Languedoc ; that their fruit 



294 K V K I) I' !•; A N V 1 N K Y A U D S. 

was even used for wiiir-iuaking by the poor people; 
that, so Avilil Mas their nature, when attempts were 
miidv to enUivato and i>rune them closely in tlie n^^u- 
al mode, they woidd blossom, but never beai*; and, 
luiallv, for iUustriiti(»n rather than jn-oof, i*eferreil to 
tlio twisted I'ohimu (dten seen in European arehitoc- 
tuix) as eopied from the wiUl vine in its gigantic for- 
est growtJi. 

I ventured to boast a little of the vi«roi\»us o-rowth 
of AuuM-iran vim>s, but here again M, ]V^al•^s took me 
ilowu, and 1 fell heavily. " C\>me this way," he said, 
" and 1 will introduce you to some of your compatri- 
ots." And he showed me to his nui'sery, or experi- 
mental vineyard rather, where were growing a givat 
muuber id" vines assembled from all parts of Europe, 
some fi"oni England e\ en, with three from AmericA, 
the Catawba, Isabella, and York's Madeim, or Canby. 
The last stood in the same rows M'ith scores of others 
of the same age, namely, three yeai-s, and had been 
tivated in all i-espects in the same manner as tJio otli- 
ei^s. Thev wore as large as a large tlnnnb, which 
was certainly very well for them, but the others wei*e 
as large as a wrist. 

I gave np. 

"They ix^sist disease remarkably well," observed 
M.lVIanXs. 



M <) N I I' K L I. I E a A S It 1 f K S U 1 M A it K H, 295 

lUi showed me his collection of plows, chief among 
wliich was the old clasHJc article, one handled, and 
all of wood except a sharp-poiiited, triangular plate 
of iron, which ran flat t^> the ground. I attacked 
the plows, thinking I could safely attack a two or 
three thousand year old invention. But M. Mar^s, 
while admitting the superiority of modem plows, 
of which several of very good construction were in 
use in Languedoc, insisted with many reasons that 
for certain kinds of work, and in certain soils, the 
" araire," as it was called, remained still a desirable 
implement. It recalled our Western shovel -plow, 
which is likewise of wood except the shovel plate, 
which does but shallow work, and stirs the s^jil with- 
out turning it over, and is, in fact, a step backward 
toward the old aravre, which last, however, goes 
down as deep as eight inches in the first or winter 
plowing. 

After the plows I was shown the bellows used for 
sulphuring. There were several kinrls, most of them 
being known in America ; but it is worthy of re- 
mark that M. Mares, after fourteen or fifteen years' 
experience with all of them, preferred the simplest 
and cheapest, namely, that described in his pamphlet 
as the Vergnes bellows. 

A serious defect in all bellows I have seen sinwjj 



296 European Vineyards. 

my return to America is that their sieves are double, 
and are too fine. They should be single, and the 
meshes as coarse as consists with economy of sul- 
phur. 

We next looked in at the wine-cellars, or rather 
houses. These were of a grandeur befitting an aver- 
age vintage of three hundred thousand gallons. The 
several apartments were furnished with fifty-five 
casks, called " f uts," of capacity varying from seven 
to ten thousand gallons, besides many enormous vats, 
each wide and deep enough to drown very comfort- 
ably dozens of naked villains who might attempt to 
bathe in it. But the thing is never needed to be 
done in Languedoc, where grapes get so dead ripe as 
to need no crushing even, but are commonly flung 
into the vat without stemming, and with no other 
crushing than what they must needs get in handling 
and transporting. For the same reason, seven days 
only is the term of the fermentation. 

From 250 acres in ^ines M. Mar^s often gathers 
as much as 15,000 hectolitres, or 375,000 gallons. 
The variety called Aramon, in the proper soil, gives 
1200 gallons to the acre as an average. 

In Languedoc, as elsewhere on the Mediterranean 
shores, and to some extent also in Burgundy, it is an 
immemorial custom to sprinkle on the grapes in the 



MONTPELLIEK AND HeNKI MaKES. 297 

vat before fermentation begins a layer of plaster of 
Paris. In the south they generally make the layer 
thick enough to amount to two pounds or more for 
every hundred gallons. This is to prevent the for- 
mation of acetic acid, and is claimed to have other 
advantages as well. Many, however, are beginning 
to oppose the practice. Its opponents, while admit- 
ting that plaster helps the wine to keep and deepens 
its color, insist that it hurts the quality, which accusa- 
tion its advocates in their turn stoutly deny. 

During fermentation the vats are usually covered 
with loose boards. A plan for improving inferior 
musts has been invented by M. Mares, which is as fol- 
lows : The best grapes, usually ripening ten days in 
advance of the others, are gathered and fermented 
first, and as their quantity is usually less than that of 
coarser qualities, the vats are only partially filled, so 
as that each one shall have its even share. On the 
eighth day the clear wine is drawn off, leaving in the 
bottom of the vat, however, not only the pomace, but 
also one fifth of the liquid. The inferior vintage is 
then flung in upon this residuum, and, fermenting 
there, takes up a portion of the virtues of the supe- 
rior one, working an amelioration that sometimes 
doubles the market value of the wine. 

This is, in fact. Gall's method, with only such dif- 
N2 



298 European Vineyards. 

ference as must always exist between real wine and 
sugared water. 

Though seven days is the usual term allotted for 
wine to remain upon the skins, it varies somewhat in 
certain parts of Languedoc. In the Gard, for in- 
stance, it is often extended to fifteen days, and again, 
where it is not intended to make wine of commerce, 
or when the "Rose" wines of the Rhone hills is 
sought to be imitated, a much shorter time is al- 
lowed, ranging from thirty hours up to three days. 
To hasten fermentation, a part of the must is some- 
times boiled and then returned to the vat. 

Common wine is only once racked off, which is 
done at the end of winter, and in cold weather, if 
practicable, but in some places it is not drawn off at 
all ; but Muscat is racked four times within the first 
three months from vintage. 

The wines of the South of France vary in alcohol- 
ic strength from seven up to sixteen per cent., the 
strongest being Muscat and Picardin, both of them 
white. Common red wines of commerce range be- 
tween ten and twelve per cent, before the dealers 
take them in hand to manipulate for market. These 
brandy heavily all they send away, which notoriously 
hm-ts their delicacy. So does the long fermentation 
on the skins, they say, which is also done to make the 



MONTPELLIER AND HeNKI MaRES. 299 

wine keep. What is retained for home consumption 
is, however, left in the vat only long enough to get a 
good color. As such wines vnll not bear transporta- 
tion, they must be drunk at home to be truly appre- 
ciated. 

From the wine-houses we looked in on the silk- 
worm nursery, and afterward walked out to where 
they were building drains of stone. In Languedoc 
it is customary to drain heavy soils, but the custom 
is by no means so uniform as it is in Medoc, Bur- 
gmidy, and Alsace, where more valuable products are 
obtained. So important do I now esteem it to di-ain 
all clay soils destined to be planted in vines, that to 
my mind the mere absence of drainage in the vine- 
yards of the Ohio Valley would suffice to account for 
their poor success, were no other cause to be found. 
Deep digging, trenching with mattock and sj)ade two 
feet deep, or deeper, have a certain effect for a few 
years, but in time the adhesive soil gets packed again, 
and the expensive preparation is as good as lost. 
And I can not but think that good tile or stone 
drainage would dispense with the costly trenching 
or deep plowing we have been used to think essen- 
tial, so far as that a good turning up with the com- 
mon subsoil plow would be found sufficient. 

We did not get back to Montpellier till some time 



300 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

after dark. At my hotel I bade good-by to the gen- 
tleman from whom I had learned so much, and the 
next day was on my way to Avignon. 

A traveling companion who lived near Avignon 
informed me it was the custom in his neighborhood 
to heap up about the feet of the olive-trees, every 
autumn, httle mounds of earth fifteen inches high, 
to protect against frost. He also said they did the 
same with their vines, which otherwise could not 
support even the mild winters of the south. Avig- 
non, it will be noted, is in the great South of France 
vine-country, and the vines alluded to were grown in 
souche. This was what I had not learned before, 
and came from a stranger, yet I am incHned to be- 
lieve it, though I don't think it is true of the vines 
about Montpellier, or those immediately on the coast. 
At Avignon the rail route toward Lyons enters the 
Valley of the Ehone, and, for a long way up that 
valley, the same method of training and the same 
vines are found as those I have been writing of, and 
as this continues all the way to Valence, which is in 
the latitude of Bordeaux, I can readily believe in the 
necessity of covering up in winter. 



Low SoucHE Vines in America. 301 



CHAPTER XYIIL 

WOULD LOW SOTJCHE VINES DO WELL IN AMERICA? 

A S regards California, this is no longer an open 
question. In certain parts of Texas, too, they 
have a wild vine which takes the low souche form of 
itself, by help of winter killing, which regularly cuts 
it down to a few eyes close to the old stalk. Those 
of us who would try the experiment should begin 
with varieties whose joints are short, whose canes 
are stiff, or, what is better, erect in their growth, and 
whose fruit-buds are found close to the old stock, or 
souche. If we have none which combine these qual- 
ifications with the other essentials of a good plant, 
means can probably be found for educating such as 
we have into the requisite habit of growth. 

In view of the possibility that we may not be able 
at once to lay our hand on precisely the right kind 
to begin with, I have imported the French varieties 
already mentioned. 

Of course they must be covered in winter, except 
the Folle-blanche, which may be hardy enough to do 
without it in some of our Southern States ; but cov- 



302 



European Vineyards. 



eriiig little ten-inch stumps would be a very trifling 
matter in comparison with the laying down and bury- 
ing of high souches, which is even now the. practice 
in our colder grape regions, and has always been done 
in some parts of Hungary. 

For ripening grapes on vines trained in souche, the 
requisite amount of heat during the growing season 
may be estimated from the following data, obtained 
after much search in a corner of the Imperial Library 
at Paris, where were deposited a few volumes of re- 
ports on the statistics of some of the departments. 
Perhaps in a f utiu'e edition I shall be able to furnish 
sometliing more satisfactory than the range of the 
thermometer in but two of the departments of the 
great vine-region of South France, one of them cov- 
ering only two years, and the other only one. The 
mean temperature of the Department of the Gard 
during each month of the growing and ripening sea- 
son, for the years 1838 and 1839 respectively, and 
that of the Department of the Bouches-du-Phone, 
where Marseilles is situated, during the correspond- 
ing months of the year 1821, were as follows : 





April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Gard, 1838 

" 1839 

Bouches-du- I 

Rhone, 1821 j 


53.24 

55.58 

50, 


63.86 
64.86 

52.70 


72.05 
76.17 

62.6 


70.70 
78.26 

65.3 


74.48 
76.04 

69.20 


67.73 
68.38 

57.20 


61.70 
60.20 

56.30 



Low SoucHE Vines in America. 303 

With the indication thus given of the temperature 
of the warmest portion of the South of France, every 
one can compare that of his own particular section, 
and judge if its climate is warm enough to ripen 
grapes on vines trained in low souche. I will, how- 
ever, give the mean temperature of one point in the 
Ohio Yalley and one in the Lake Erie region : 





April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 


Aufr. Sept. 


Oct. 


Cincinnati 

Kelly's Island ... 


54.10 


63. GO 
57.53 


71.40 
68.65 


76.50 
74.01 


74.20 66. 
72.41 64.94 


53.20 
.53.16 



The degree of heat needed to ripen the Folle- 
blanche in souche is less than what the other varie- 
ties seem to require. It alone, so far as I could 
learn, flourishes in that form as far north as Bor- 
deaux, and even farther north in the Department of 
the Charente, where, as we have seen, it yields the 
wine of which Cognac brandy is made. The mean 
temperature of the Charente, derived from observa- 
tions made during a series of four years, at the hours 
of seven A.M. and two and eleven P.M. each day, is 
as follows : 



April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 


August. 


September. 1 October. 


47.90 


53.81 


58.19 


60.87 


59.28 


57.68 1 47.98 



Whether we compare with the South of France, 
then, or the far more temperate region of the Borde- 
lais and the Charente, it will appear that throughout 



304 European Vineyards. 

the greater part of the United States we shall have 
a sufficiency of solar heat for ripening grapes on 
vines in souche. 

It has been objected to this kind of training that 
it can not succeed except in an extremely dry cli- 
mate. But vines in souche seem to do as well in 
the Yalley of the Ehone, where the mean rain-fall for 
the year is 36 inches (the same as in L'Herault), and 
for the summer months 9^ inches, as in Gironde and 
Charente, where the yearly quantity is but 24 inches, 
or in parts of California, where the summer mean is 
less than 2 inches. Or, if we regard the dryness or 
dampness of the air merely, and not the rain-fall, we 
find such vines supporting as well the aridity of the 
South of France, where there are but 77 rainy days 
in the year, as the moisture of the Yalley of the Gi- 
ronde, where there are 141, or of the Yalley of the 
Charente, where there are 150 of them in a year. 

A good deal has been published in America on 
the climatology of the grape, in which the quantity 
of the annual as well as of the summer rain-fall is 
treated as being very important. It seems to me 
that the true inquiry should be how dry, or how 
moist, are the soil and the air during the growing 
and ripening process? Languedoc, with 36 inches 
of rain-fall, is a dry region, chiefly because those 36 



Low SoucHE Vines in America. 305 

inches fall in 77 days, while the Charente is a moist 
one, with only 24 inches of water, chiefly because it 
continues to come down during 150 drizzly days. 
The fact is well known that, as compared with the 
climates of France, Germany, and other wine-coun- 
tries of Europe, our own is remarkably dry. 

If it be said that to be safe from the oidium we 
must take refuge in regions where the rain-fall meas- 
ures only just so many inches in such and such 
months — that we must abandon our Ohio Yalley 
and fly to the lake shore, I will ask. Why is it that 
oidium in all its forms is far more pestilential in the 
South of France, which is very much the dryest por- 
tion of the kingdom, than in any other part of it ? 
Or, if it be replied that this results from training in 
souche, I rejoin that they have there both stakes and 
trellis, and that it is precisely the vines trained upon 
stakes and trellis that are afllicted the worst. 

There exist in America three conditions which 
render training in souche more suitable for us at the 
present time than the other modes. These are : 

1st. Dear labor. 

2d. Cheap land. 

3d. Immediate need for much cheap wine. 

In view of the first of these, I would observe that 
the cost of creating an acre of vineyard, planted in 



306 EuKOPEAN Vineyards. 

the fashionable varieties, and furnished with wire 
trellis, exclusive of the price of the land, fencing, 
and a good many other smaller items, has of late run 
up to the large sum of $600, $700, and $800 in Con- 
gress money, which, being reduced to the currency 
of the Bible and the Constitution, means, we will say, 
$500. In many places this is doubled, and in others 
much more than doubled, by the speculative prices 
paid for the ground. And the yearly expenditure 
for attendance, merely, is estimated, I see, as high, 
sometimes, as $150, or, I should say, $110 of true 
money, in which we will hereafter continue to make 
our estimates, if you please. 

IS'ow if I should assume the first cost and subse- 
quent maintenance of a vineyard in souche to be 
only one third of the cost where the methods in 
vogue are followed, I should probably come as near 
to exactitude as estimates usually bring us. But I 
prefer each one should estimate for himself. The 
same preparation of the soil is needed as with other 
vines. Cuttings, and not roots, should be used, and 
cuttings for an acre sliould not cost over $10 — we 
used to sell them for $2 50 the thousand. Only 
winter-pruning is needed, and no pinching, rubbing 
off, willow-tying, straw-tying, or leaf -pruning ; and as 
regards plowing and cultivating, the same labor good 
farmers bestow on their corn-fields will suffice. 



Low SoucHE Vines in America. 307 

In view of the other two conditions, I recommend 
the selection of rich, warm, and, at the same time, 
easily tilled soils, such as are more readily found on 
plains than on hills. A good sandy loam, planted in 
souche with Concords or Ives's Seedlings, well culti- 
vated and well sulphured, ought to bring an average 
annual crop of one thousand gallons to the acre, 
which should sell, while new, not for $1 50, $2, $3, 
and $4 per gallon, but for 25 cents at the veiy out- 
side. 

We can, and we will, grow wine cheaper than the 
Europeans, and for the same reason that we can grow 
wheat cheaper than they, namely, that we have cheap- 
er land and more of it. In raising grapes on our 
present system, however, we abandon the only van- 
tage-ground we possess, and enter into competition 
with them in a field where they are stronger than 
We. 

As long as our wines, no matter how inferior, sell 
for a dollar a gallon, expensive vineyards, with their 
costly culture, may do very well, but how long will 
this last? More than one authority entitled to re- 
spect have lately estimated the extent of our present 
plantation at from one to two millions of acres. I 
think this an enormously large estimate, but don't 
doubt we shall, before very long, have a million acres 



308 European ViNEYAKDs. 

in bearing, chiefly of coarse varieties and yielding 
large crops. We shall have a glut of wine, as we 
have twice had of petroleum, and a like fall in prices. 
This is what I want to see, and what Mr. Longworth 
hoped for and labored for, till the blight came upon 
our vines. Yet, when such a glut shall come, the 
sufferers will be those whose vineyards cost to make 
them, land included, a thousand dollars the acre, and 
to maintain them a hundred dollars yearly, rather 
than those who shall follow the more economical plan. 

Fine qualities, where they happen to be on fine 
soils, will bear the highest possible cultivation. Of 
such there is no danger we shall ever see an over- 
production. I know of but one man in America 
who has turned away from rich hill-side land, and 
gone and planted his vines on a meagre soil, with 
the purpose of obtaining a choice rather than an 
abundant return. 

For cheap culture and large crops we should go to 
the plains. For a small but valuable product we 
may resort to expensive garden-culture, if we can 
find an exceptional soil, and such will more easily be 
discovered on hills than elsewhere. To adopt expen- 
sive methods on strong hill-lands, only to grow coarse 
and cheap wines, is a great mistake, into which our 
instructors from foreign countries have led us. 



How THEY Plant Vines in Souche. 309 



CHAPTER XIX. 

HOW THEY PLANT VINES IN SOUCHE. 

TpOE. the details I am able to give on tliis subject, 
I am largely indebted to the writings of M, 
Mar^s, as well as to his verbal instructions. 

Unless the soil be very light indeed, draining is 
essential. If this be done, a good subsoil plowing is 
all the preparation needed, unless it be manuring. If 
it is not done, the ground must be broken up to the 
depth of two feet. In Languedoc they go down to 
the depth of- three feet sometimes, but usually from 
16 to 24: inches is all. To break up an acre two feet 
deep requires the labor of two yoke of oxen and two 
drivers for three days, and of one yoke and one driver 
for the same time, the work being done at two opera- 
tions, the hea^der plow following the lighter. 

The usual distance of five feet between the plants 
is, strange to say, extended to nearly six feet where 
the land is poor. It is thought that a wider space 
than five feet on rich ground induces a too great de- 
velopment of wood and leaves, at the expense of the 



310 European Vineyards. 

ripeness and excellence of the fruit, a thing not to 
be feared where the ground is poor. As obviously 
there would be a better access for the plow if the 
space were enlai-ged, it has been attempted to obtain 
that advantage by planting in rows 7 feet 3 inches ♦ 
apart, the plants being distant from each other in the 
rows only 3 feet T inches ; but this has not succeeded. 
The same variety, growing on the same soil, has been 
found to give twenty-five per cent, more wine where 
planted 5x5, than where planted 7.3 x 3.7. 

They use both rooted plants and cuttings. "Where 
the soil is not too dry for them to take root easily, 
which is, however, most commonly the case, cuttings 
are preferred. In Medoc, where such a degree of 
dryness is not to be feared, they decidedly prefer 
cuttings. For the larger portion of our country I 
feel sure cuttings are best. This is especially true 
since nursery-men have learned the forcing process. 
But cuttings should be carefully chosen, and as care- 
fully prepared and set out. A cutting should never 
be taken from a barren vine nor fi-om a barren cane, 
but from a fruit-branch of the preceding year that 
has borne fruit, and fi'om a healthy plant of full age. 
In Languedoc they bring vines into bearing as early 
from cuttings as fi'om roots. Where the intention is 
to plant in the early part of winter, they soak the 



How THEY Plant Vines in Souche. 311 

lower eiglit inches of the cuttings for a week before 
planting them ; but this can be dispensed with if re- 
cent rains have moistened the soil, or if the planting 
is to be done in the spring. Before setting them out, 
the bark of the cuttings is scraped in places here and 
there between the eyes for eight inches of the lower 
portion, the knife penetrating to the inner bark. Un- 
der very favorable circumstances, the failures of cut- 
tings thus prepared, and which were planted as soon 
as cut from the vine, have been known to amount to 
only two per cent. 

In M^doc, if cuttings are to be planted before 
their buds put out, they prepare them by setting 
them in a trench inclined at an angle of forty-five 
degrees, and cover the lower half with earth ; or, if 
they are not to be planted so early, a ditch two feet 
deep is dug, on the bottom of which there is flung 
eight inches of loose earth ; on this eight inches of 
cuttings are laid horizontally, separated from each 
other by more loose dirt sprinkled in, and finally cov- 
ered with about eight inches of earth, which com- 
pletes the filling up of the trench. 

Another plan, mentioned in M. Du Brieuil's work, 
is to bury them in a trench in a perpendicular posi- 
tion, points downward and butts upward, and cover 
them with two inches of earth. This, he says, ad- 



312 



European Vineyakdi 



vances their growth by one year. Possibly, with 
these hints, we may devise a way to make cuttings 
from Norton's Virginia Seedling take root, a thing 
as yet found impossible unless forcing of some kind 
is resorted to. 

After establishing the points to be occupied by the 
souches in the new plantation, a peg nine inches long 
is driven down at each point. At the side of each 
peg a hole is dug measuring twelve inches every way, 
and so close up to the peg that it makes its appear- 
ance midway in the side of the hole (see plate ISTo. 1). 
The bottom of the hole is covered with two inches of 
surface soil, but no manure. The peg being now re- 
moved, the plant or cutting is made to take its place, 
with the lower end, however, to the length of two 
joints, including two eyes, curved to an inclination 
of forty-five degrees, the base penetrating to the bot- 
tom of the two-inch layer of loose soil, as seen in 
plate No. 2. The hole is now filled up with surface 
soil, and well packed down. 




At the proper time, that portion which shows it- 
self above ground is cut back to either two eyes or 



How THEY Plant Vines in Souche. 313 

three ; or, if more of it is left to guide the plowman, 
the buds on it are rubbed off except the two or three 
lowest. If the soil be damp, three eyes are left, 
which will give the souche a height of about eight 
inches ; but if the ground be diy, only two are left, 
giving a height of from four to six inches. For the 
longer souche a small stake is provided to hold it up 
till it can maintain itself. Eight or ten inches would 
be the proper length in this country. 

During the first season the ground is worked at 
least three times, and, if needed, as many as six times, 
for no weeds must be tolerated. At the second plow- 
ing of the second year the earth is removed from 
the feet of the plants, so as to leave each row stand- 
ing in a shallow trench, which is not closed until 
early in May. This is to allow the suckers, which 
sprout from the plant quite down to its foot, and 
prevent its forming a good souche, to be removed, 
which is done just before the trenches are filled, at 
which time the suckers have usually attained a length 
of twelve inches. 

As the winds in the south of France are extremely 
violent, a mound of earth four inches high is formed 
about the plant during the first and second seasons 
after filling the trenches, otherwise they would be in 
danger of being uprooted. The second year the cul- 

O 



3U 



EcjEOPEAN Vineyards. 



tivatioii is otherwise the same as during the first 
year. 

The third year the same treatment as to suckering 
and banking up the earth, as well as plowing, is fol- 
lowed. 

At the end of the first year, if the 
growth has been good, and two large 
enough shoots can be found issuing 
from the proper place, both of them 
are reserved to form arms to the future 
souche, and are cut back to two or three 
eyes, as in plate No. 3. 

Prmiing in the second and tliird 
prunirg^attheeud jears is uot douc till late in March or 
of the first year. gg^j.]y {j^ April, Icst the youug plants, 

lieing earlier to put out than older ones, sliould suf- 
fer from frosts. 

At the end of the second 
year the pruning is so per- 
formed as to give to the 
souche three, four, or six 
arms, according to its A-igor ; 
and, if the soil and cultiva- 
tion are good, each arm is 
allowed to retain three eyes, otherwise each is cut 
back to only two. 





Pruning at the end of the sec- 
ond year. 



How THEY Plant Vines in Souciie. 315 




Pruuiug at the end of the third 
year. 



At the end of the third year the soiiche is so 
primed as to increase the 
number of arms to six, if 
that could not be done the 
year before ; if the gromid 
is good, two eyes are this 
yeaf allowed to each shoot ; 
if not, then only one eye 
and a sub-eye are reserved. 
We have now conducted the young plant to its 
adult age, and henceforth the pruning is uniform 
year by year. This is so conducted as to leave at 
the extremity of every arm one shoot of the preced- 
ing year's growth, cut back to one or two eyes, ac- 
cording to the vigor of tlie vine. If the vine is very 
strong, sometimes more than one slioot is left on an 
arm. Care is taken to balance the souche on all 
sides by keeping the arms as equal in length and reg- 
ular in position as possible. 

If too much old M'ood has accumulated on tlic 
arms, so as to impair the healtli of the souche, it is 
carefully corrected by pruning in the way shown in 
the two plates, No. 6 and No. 7. 

Wlienever, fi*om age, disease, or other cause, a vine 
is condemned to be I'ooted out, and it becomes good 
policy to obtain fi'om it all tlie fruit it will ripen 



316 



EUEOPEAN YiNEYAEDS. 




An old souche ueecling to be reduced. 
7 




The same gouche after beiug reduced. 

while it lives, two of the shoots are bowed upward 
and tied together without any pruning, and all the 
others are cut back to three eyes. This soon ex- 
liausts the vine. 



How THEY Plant Vines in Souche, 317 




318 



European V i n e y a k d s. 



Plate No. 8 represents an Aranion tweh'e years 
old. 

Plate No. 9 represents a plant forty years old that 
lias been pruned, 

9 




(JuJ^OLUSION. 319 



CHAPTEE XX. 

CONCLUSION. 

T^IIE climates of those countries from whicli om- 
knowledge of viticultm-e has been mainly de- 
rived but very little resemble that of the United 
States. Our skies are clear, our rains torrential, our 
sun hot, and our air dry. We ha^e rude winds and 
sudden and severe changes. The important vine-dis- 
trict to which I have been just directing attention 
has skies as clear, a sun as hot, rains as copious, a 
drier air, ruder winds, and quicker changes. Its in- 
habitants enjoy an experience that has come down 
from Roman and even Grecian days ; and a people 
who but lately led European civilization are certain- 
ly able to profit by such an experience, and may 
safely be presumed to know something about grape- 
growing. 

I commend especially to gentlemen in the South- 
em States the subject of training according to the 
modes of Southern France, as being adapted to many 
of their warmer soils and their abundant sunshine. 



320 European Vineyards. 

How far to the northward of the Yalley of the Ohio 
the method in question might hope for success de- 
pends on many facts and considerations. We have 
seen that the Folle-blanche, thus trained, does per- 
fectly well in a colder climate than that of our Lake 
Erie shore, and a damper than any on our Atlantic 
sea-board, while, as for those other plants which flour- 
ish throughout Languedoc, they would find as warm 
a home on the banks of " La Belle Riviere.". 

I conclude with a few words of advice to such of 
my countrymen as can command a half acre of 
ground for vine-growing. Drain it well, and keep 
it only moderately rich. Plant Norton's Seedling or 
Ives's, and train them on the low souche system, fol- 
lowing closely its simple precepts, except where your 
own judgment modifies them. Gather the grapes 
before they get too ripe, crush them after stemming, 
and let the must complete its fermentation before 
being draAvn off the skins, so that your wine shall be 
thoroughly red. Drink that wine — you, and your 
wife, and little ones ; drink it for breakfast, drink it ' 
for dinner, drink it for supper ; drink it, in sliort, 
whenever you are dry, or wet, or cold, or tired. Drink 
your own wine, and not another's. It will cost less 
than the sugar you now mix in your tea or coffee. 
It will reduce your grocer's bill, and nearly abolish 



Conclusion. 321 

your doctor's. It will give you healthy childreD, and 
not only purify their blood, but mend their manners 
also, Babrius says. Your wife will gradually reform 
her ice- water drinking, abandon her dyspepsy^ take 
tlesh upon her bones, be seen to smile often and some- 
times laugh, and glow with the warmth of health 
and love. You, on your part, will gradually become 
less uneasy, and more fond of amusement than ex- 
citement ; will grow more plump, but have better 
strength to carry your flesh. Owing to the presence 
of particles of red coloring matter in the "v\dne, things 
mil look more rosy-hued than before, and the future 
appear not unlike a Western sunset. At times you 
may feel somewhat " above par" — a trifle lighter- 
hearted than usual. In such case, be not alarmed ; 
excessive happiness is a symptom that will generally 
pass away of itself — or they might pump a little cold 
water on your head. 

Thus can you obtain in abundance a purer drink 
than water, a cheaper drink than sugared water, and 
a healthier one than any. Thus may you bring 
tranquillity and cheerfulness beneath your roof -tree, 
and contentment and affection to your fireside — live 
a merry life, and 

' ' Die a good old man. " 
02 



INDEX. 



A. 

Page 

Adulteration, mtli sugar and water 121 

with distilled spirits 122 

how detected 129 

with tartaric acid 133 

how detected 133 

as affecting health and morals 134 

American iced drinks 119 

American vines in France 294 

American wines at the Paris Exhibition 137 

over-production of 307 

B. 

Babrius, his wisdom ' 101 

Basalt soil 185 

Beer, Vienna 139 

Beer-drinking 189 

Bellows, for sulphitring vines 295 

Beziers 74 

Black sulphurous earth 158 

Bordeaux 9 

Bow pruning 92, 187 

Brandy-making, in Cognac 31 

in the South of France 74 

Burgundy 78 

C. 
Capri ..,. 198 

Casks, in Me'doc, preparation of 55 



324 Index. 

Page 

Casks, in the Sauterne District 6;) 

in Burgundy 80, 88 

in Champagne 110 

at Johannisberg 171 

in the South of France 296 

Catawba wine, its value- 117 

Cellars, in Me'doc 58 

in Burgundy 84 

in Champagne 106 

in the South of France 286 

Cette 285 

Champagne 148 

Chaptalizing wine 120 

Chemistry and wine 127 

Clarifying 110 

Classification of Me'doc wines 06 

Climate of the South of France 20;") 

Clos Vougeot 88 

Coal tar on casks 186 

Coffee, effects of 102 

Cognac 29 

Contents of the ' ' Manual for Sulphuring, "etc 213 

Cos d'Estournel *. 6-1 

Cost of cultivation in Burgundy 95 

on the Ehine 185 

Covering vines in winter 300 

as practiced in Tokay 191 

Crushing grapes with the feet 53 

in tubs 183 

Cuttings, how selected and prepared 310 

how planted 312 

D. 

Delarue, M. , his tests of adulterations 1 29, 1 33 

Degorgement of sparkling wine 113 

Delevan and Dow, their delusions 19 

Diseases of the vine (see Vine disease) 206 

Distribution of prizes at the Paris Exhibition 142 



Index. 325 

Page 

Dosing wine in Champagne 1 10 

Drainage, in Medoc 63 

in Southern Fi-ance 299 

importance of, in America 299 

Drawing off, inMe'doc 56 

in tlie Sauterne District 69 

in Burgundy 88 

in Champagne 110 

in the South of France 298 

Drunkard's thirst 131 

Durkheim 183 

. E. 

"Em-agatt" 17 

Epernay lOG 

Eugenie, the Empress 142 

Exhibition of ]867 at Paris 118 

F. 

Falsification of wines 119 

Filling up, in Medoc 56 

in the Sauterne District 69 

Folle-blanche 17 

Foreign wine-makers in America 11-1 

Frontignan , 285 

Frost inthe vSouth of France , 290 

G. 

Gallizing wines 120 

Grape-cure 181,183 

Guyot's system of pruning 91 

H. 

■ Heating wines to preserve them 144 

HoUaud 161 

Hussman 123 



82(5 Index. 



I. 

Page 

Iron in grape soils 93 

Italian methods 196 

Italian wines 200 

Italy 196 

J. 

Johannisberg .-, 164 

Julejjs 136 

K. 

Keeping wines, Pasteui-'s method for 143 

L. 

Lachiyma Christi 196 

Lafitte 61 

Lake Erie Wine District, temperature of 303 

Languedoc 71 

Layering vines, in Burgundy 80, 95 

in Champagne 152 

as preventing the disease 96 

Leaf-pruning, in the Bordelais 21 

in the Sauterne District 68 

in Champagne ; 157 

Leoville 63 

Liquem- for Sparkling wine (see Sinip) Ill 

Long pruning destructive (see Pruning) 91 

Low souche vines 17 

in California 76 

in Texas 301 

would they do in America? 301 

cost of ; 306 

how to plant 309' 

how to in'une 287 

cultivation of, when young 313 

Low training (see Low souche) 17 



I N D i<: X. 321 



M. 

Page 

Maine, Valley of the 187 

Manners as affected by wine-drinking 37 

Manuring, in Me'doc 60 

in the Sauterne District 69 

in Burgundy 81 

in Champagne 156 

at Johannisberg 172 

in Ehenish Bavaria 185 

in Hungary. .: 191 

in the South of France 286, 289 

Mares, Henri, his work on Sulphur Cure 209 

conversations with 287, 290 

Medoc 34 

Methuen treaty 25 

Montpellier 284 

N. 

New vines and old 56,153, 289 

Normandy horses 13 

Norton's Virginia Seedling 59 

O. 

O'idium, the (see Vine disease) 206 

Old vines and new 56, 153,289 

Oxen in France 43 

P. 

Pasteur, his method of preserving wine 143 

Pauillac 38 

Percheron horses 13 

Petiotizing wines 126 

Pichon-Longueville 59 

Planting, in Burgundy 94 

in Champagne 156 

in the South of France 309 

Pliny, saying of 35 



328 Index. 

Page 

Plowing, in the Bordeltiis 21 

in Charente 33 

in Medoc 46 

in the Sauterue District 69 

in the South of France 288 

Politeness of the French an effect of red wiue 101 

Port wine, how made 138 

Potash in shales of the Lake Shore and Ohio Valley 159 

Preparation of the soil, in Burgundy 94 

at Johannisherg 170 

in the South of France 309 

Preserving wine, Pasteur's method 143 

Pressoir 47 

Prices of wine, in the Bordelais 18 

in Me'doc 66 

in the South of France 75, 204 

in Burgundy 80 

in America 125, 307 

of Johaunisberger 173 

Production increasing in France 286 

increasing rapidly in America 124 

average of, in Charente 33 

in Medoc 46 

in the Sauterne District 69 

on the Cote d'or 90, 92 

in the South of France 296 

Provignage 96 

Pruning, in the Bordelais 16 

in the Sauterne District 68 

in Burgundy 80 

on the Cote d'or 91 

Guyot's system of. 91 

in Champagne ^^'^ 

on the Rhine 187 

in Italy 198 

of low souche vines 287 

late, a protection from frost 292 

of young vines in low souche... 314 



Index, 329 



R. 

Page 

Red wine, its effects diff"erent from those of white 98, 103 

the best for Americans 100 

Rain-faU, of the South of France 205 

of the Gironde Valley 30i 

of the Charente Valley oO-i 

Rheims 148 

Rhenish Bavaria 184 

Rhenish wines 163 

Rhine, District of the 162 

Rhinegau, the 164 

Riviera Road 201 

S. 

Saint Genes 15 

Sauterne 68 

Shale in the Ohio Valley 159 

in the Lake Erie District 158 

Sirup for Champagne, first dose Ill 

second dose 114 

Soils, of Cre'on 15 

of Charente 27 

ofMe'doc 50 

of the Sauterne District 68 

of Burgundy 92 

of the Cote d'or 92 

of the t'hampagne District 149, 156 

of the Rhhiegau 168 

of Johannisberg 1 68 

of the Swiss districts 182 

of Rhenish Bavaria 185 

of Hungary 191,194 

of the South of France 204 

Sorrento 196 

Souche basse 17 

Sparkling wine 107 

Stein wine 187 



330 Index. 

Page 

Stemming grapes 48 

opposite practice in regard to 83 

kSfemming-table, best €5 

Still iiillery 108 

Stomach, temperature of. 129 

Store-houses 58 

Sulphur-cvu'e, in Champagne 159 

on the Rhine 186 

in Italy 199 

Sulphuring of Diseased Vines, Manual for 209 

Sulphur in shale, of Lake Erie shore 158 

of the Ohio Valley 159 

Summer priming, in the Bordelais 21 

in Medoc 51 

in Champagne 157 

Swiss vineyards 180 

T- 

Tartaric acid, adulteration with 133 

Tea, effects of. 102 

Temperature of the South of Prance 302 

of Charente 303 

of Cincinnati 303 

of the Lake Erie District 303 

Terraced vineyards of Italy 202 

Tokay wine 192 

Training, in the Bordelais 16 

in low souche 287 

its advantages 20 

of young plantations 314 

in Charente 27 

inMe'doc 47 

in the South of France 76 

on the Cote d'or 91 

at Johannisberg 1 70 

in Italy 197,201 

Tuscanv 201 



Index. 331 



V. 

Page 

Vats, in Me'doc 49, 54, 59, 63 

• in Burgimdy 82 

in the South of France 75, 29() 

Verdigris for birds 44 

Vine-culture in America too expensive 305 

Vine disease, in Burgundy 96 

in Champagne 154 

in the South of France 20G 

in 1 1 unga r J- 191 

in America 206 

layering a preventive for 154 

most injurious to high vines 305 

sulphur treatment for ;........ 209 

Vintage dance 39 

Vintage, in Medoc 45 

in the Sauterne District 69 

in Burgundy 81 

in Champagne 1 09 

at Johan nisberg 171 

on the Rhine 184 

in Tokay 192 

Vintage laborers 45 

W. 

Wages, in the Bordelais 22 

in Burgundy 81 

Whitewash on vines 186 

Wild vines in the South of France 293 

Wine-making, in Medoc 47,52,59,61,63,65 

in the Sauterne District i G9 

in the South of France 75, 296 

in Burgundy 82 

in Champagne 107 

at Johannisberg 171 

on the Upper Rhine 183 

in Tokay '92 



332 Index. 

Pajre 

Wine-making, in Italy 197 

Wire trellis 16 

Working the soil, in the Bordelais 21 

in Charente 33 

in Me'doc 4G 

in the Sauterne District '. GO 

i n B u r g un dy 80 

in Champagne 157 

at Johanni sberg 169 

in llhenish Bavaria 185 

in Himgary 191 

in Southern France 288 



THE END. 



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